


The Last Battle

by leiasky



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:26:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 44,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25351603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leiasky/pseuds/leiasky
Summary: Every year for their anniversary, Killian takes Emma for a sail on the Jolly Roger. This time, she has a very unexpected gift for him. And when they return, they discover Storybrooke has an even bigger one for them.
Relationships: Belle/Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold, Captain Hook | Killian Jones/Emma Swan, Prince Charming | David Nolan/Snow White | Mary Margaret Blanchard
Comments: 131
Kudos: 161





	1. 1

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s note: Takes place 5 years after Emma and Killian’s wedding.  
> I am choosing to ignore the incredibly confusing season 7, though there will be elements of it sprinkled throughout this story – which will be revealed as it unfolds.
> 
> Additional note:  
> I usually write scripts so prose comes hard for me nowadays. Hopefully, I haven’t bungled up the tense in this story too badly. I don’t know anyone familiar enough with this show to beta read. If any readers know someone who might want to help with that, please let me know!

A resounding splash echoes across the enchanted deck as the anchor hits the water. After expertly securing the line and with a quick scan of the slowly darkening sky over the far horizon, Killian glances back at his lovely wife, fading sunlight ringing her golden head as she stands at the wheel and pretends to steer.

“We’re locked in place now, love.”

“I know.” The easy lilt of her voice is like mermaid song to his ears as he saunters back to her side, unwilling to be parted for a moment longer. His fingers thread through hers as they rest on the ship’s wheel and he shifts closer, eager as always to begin their anniversary celebration.

His skin prickles with goose flesh when she slowly, teasingly circles the fingers of her other hand around the cool metal of his hook. A saucy smile that causes all the blood in his body rush south completes the delightfully naughty memory that he will forever carry in his dreams.

He gestures toward the deck below. “The skies are darkening. Perhaps we should-“

“-Stay right here.”

Before his brain can formulate another response, she rubs her body sinfully against his and hooks the cool metal around the wheel in such a way that he will have to twist uncomfortably to remove it. A curious eyebrow rises high onto his forehead when she loops his hand under a wooden rung and brazenly pins it in place with her body.

“Don’t make me tie you down.”

A roguish twinkle sparkles in his eyes. “Perish the thought, love.”

He watches her with darkening eyes and quickening heartbeat as she deftly unzips his silk vest and tugs open the buttons all the way down the front of his dark shirt.

He dimly wonders why she’s left his leather long coat in place until the cool sea breeze ruffles the thin material hanging limply down his body. When one delicate hand slides around the back of his neck to pull his lips to hers and the other trails across his bare chest, his eyes cross and a trail of heat spreads across the exposed skin.

He huffs a needy groan into her mouth as her hand continues southward, nails scratching across pebbled nipples with its descent. She makes quick work of his belt, pops the button on his jeans and he sets his footing on the slowly rolling deck, body tense with anticipation. Not exactly how he expected their anniversary voyage to begin but he isn’t about to complain.

When her tongue darts into his mouth and the fingers at his nape tug the soft strands of his hair, he grunts with growing lust against her delectable lips.

“Emma…” A lesser man would be embarrassed by the breathless plea but he doesn’t care as his every sense is overtaken by a burning need to absorb everything she has to give.

Her answer is an amused singsong that sends spine-tingling desire straight to his groin. “Yes, Killian?”

So she’s in a playful mood tonight. He searches her eyes and the thrill of anticipation has his tongue darting out to moisten suddenly dry lips.

“Get on with it then, love.” The tone is a deliberate challenge, one that he can already see her rising brilliantly toward by the simmering fire in her eyes. He chases her lips as they come close but to his disappointment, she leans away.

“Hungry?”

She traces the waistline of his pants and he finds himself unable to suppress the shiver that races down his spine at the delectable promise reflected in the dance of her fingers.

“You have no bloody idea,” he breathes, forcing himself to remain still so she can have her fun.

She leans forward and teasingly traces the shell of his ear with her tongue, her breath a hot whisper, “Oh, I think I do.”

His low groan turns into a startled gasp as her fingers deftly lower the zipper at the same time her teeth bite gently down on the shell of his ear.

“Bloody hell, Swan,” he grunts and arches his hips into the hand that expertly works its way through his undergarments to grasp the rapidly hardening length of him.

What he doesn’t expect is for her to so quickly drop to her knees and replace that confident hand with her even more talented mouth.

With a long, low guttural groan, his hand grips the wheel even more tightly as she works him into a quivering mass of intense need. The hook, still latched right where she’s placed it before embarking on her secret quest, scrapes indecently along the enchanted wood.

His skin burns beneath her expert strokes and she ignores his gasped warning moments before his legs buckle with the sudden burst of release.

Chest heaving, he glances down at his minx of a wife just in time to see her lick her lips and shoot him a self-satisfied smirk. Before he can untangle hook and fingers from his beloved ship’s wheel, she stands and gently tucks him back into his clothing.

With a saucy wink, she walks away from his debauched self, tossing him a smile over her shoulder, eyes glistening, “Dinner?”

In the time it takes his fog-addled brain to formulate a response, she’s disappeared below deck.

With single-minded focus, he quickly disentangles his limbs from the helm and stalks across the deck after her. He expertly navigates his way into the Captain’s cabin – only to find that Emma has set out their dinner on the table on which he’d intended to ravish her.

The brilliant smile she greets him with reveals that she knows exactly what he had planned. She lifts her arms and drapes them across his shoulders when he stalks toward her, places hand and hook at her waist and heaves her up against the nearest wall, the predatory gleam in his eyes now burning with a white hot fire.

“Not hungry, then?” she asks with a breathless giggle.

“Oh, I’m hungry, love. Just not for Granny’s lasagna.”

Her hands thread themselves into his hair when his mouth latches onto that sensitive hollow where her neck meets her shoulder and heady desire races beneath his skin when she exhales a breathy moan into his ear.

With expert precision, he backs her toward the bed but comes to a halt when she stands firm. “I have plans, Killian.”

“Aye, so do I love,” he breathes against the soft skin of her neck.

He’s stunned when she expertly extricates herself from his very amorous embrace, her eyes bright and full of mirth.

“Dinner first. Then dessert.”

He swallows hard to quell the desire raging through his blood. But if she wants to imbibe a bit, who is he, the rum connoisseur of the seven seas, to stop her. As he is well aware, the taking and giving of pleasure with alcohol coursing through ones blood always provides an additional layer to an already heady experience.

So he executes a regal bow and sweeps out the chair closest to her, eager to see her plan through to its end.

The hairs on the back of his neck stand on end when she slides into the offered seat and upends a shot of amber liquid into the singular shot glass sitting on the table.

His eyes narrow with a sudden heart-stopping realization as he takes in her happy smile, bright eyes and glowing skin. With his heart in his throat, he watches as she removes the last piece from their carefully packed dinner bag; a long box containing an item that he’s seen only once before. Six months before their preciously precocious daughter Hope had been born.

All thoughts of teasing his beautiful wife until she’s writhing in pleasure beneath him instantly vanish as he kneels at her feet, his voice a soft and questioning, “Emma?”

He watches in silence as her long, slim fingers pull the test from the box and hold up the positive side.

Her hand gently cups his cheek. “Happy anniversary, Killian.”

He scoops her out of the chair and into his arms with a cry of shocked joy. The test falls from her fingers when he spins her, mouth sliding down her salty cheek before landing on her lips. They sway for a few moments and he encourages the press of her body against his as the kiss turns heated.

“I had all these plans,” she starts but his mouth swallows the rest of the words as it slants hungrily against hers.

He moans against her mouth as her fingers tug at his hair to deepen the kiss. When they must part to breathe, he pulls her tighter against him with his hooked arm at her waist and fingers curled gently around the nape of her neck. A gentle trail of reverent kisses down the long column of her neck, follow.

“But I couldn’t wait. I –“

“Thank you,” he breathes against her neck. Overwhelmed with the sheer impossible joy at such simple news. They hadn’t talked about having another baby and for a brief, insecure moment, he wonders if she’s ok with this development. “Emma are you sure? Do you want-“

She shushes him with a finger to his lips. “We didn’t plan this one but that doesn’t make it any less welcome.”

He pulls away after one last kiss to her pretty lips. “You need to eat, love. Especially now that you’re eating for two.”

With a mischievous gleam he’s used to being the one to deliver, she wraps her fingers into the lapels of his jacket and yanks him forward.

“There’s only one thing I’m hungry for at this very moment, sailor, and it’s not food.”

****

Emma shifts closer to him, her backside pressing delightfully into his wakening groin as she threads her fingers through his where they rest on her flat stomach.

He presses a kiss into her hair and tightens his one handed grip on her belly, knowing the pea -sized babe there won’t yet be large enough for him to feel. His thoughts wander to their first born, not yet out of her crib, that they’ve left with her grandparents for the night.

“I can hear you thinking,” Emma says with an amused lilt to her sleep-addled voice.

He nuzzles his nose into her neck and presses a gentle kiss to the soft skin. “Sorry to wake you, love.”

She rolls to face him and he meets her sleepy eyes as his arms tighten around her.

“Hope?”

He buries his nose against her cheek and confirms with a, “Mhmm,” peppered in between gentle kisses. Clearly, he’s as much of an open book to her as she is to him.

“She’s fine with mom and dad, you know.” There was no chastisement in her voice though he felt slightly ridiculous all the same.

She leans away and forces his eyes to hers. “It’s ok to miss her.”

He offers a wry smile. “And I do, love. We’ve never been away from her for a night.”

With a knowing smile, she wraps her arms around his neck and coaxes him down for a very thorough kiss. When they finally part, she whispers against his mouth, ”then let’s go back and rescue our baby girl from mom’s never ending cheerfulness.”

He laughs then, good and long. Pulls her closer with the blunted wrist at the small of her back and cards his fingers into her hair. “You’re making fun.”

Her eyes dance as she regards him. “Killian. I am happy to tell anyone and everyone who will listen how our six month old daughter has the big, bad pirate Captain Hook wrapped around her finger.”

The mock look of horror on his face is replaced quickly with a playful smile. “Think of my reputation.”

“Do you want to go back?” Her tone is suddenly serious and he knows she’d be willing to cut their anniversary celebration short if he but asked.

He offers her a sheepish grin and recognizes that he’s overreacting. “No. I’m being ridiculous.”

She rolls him onto his back and straddles his hips but when his hand and wrist come down at her waist to hold her in place, he contemplatively stares at her still flat belly for a long moment

“Killian?” The concern in her voice pulls his eyes back to hers.

He isn’t sure how to address this without sounding like an insecure child but he needs to address this new insecurity now rather than let it fester. It had taken a long time but they don’t have secrets. Not anymore. “Do you think it might be too much?”

The confusion is written all over her face and he forces himself to elaborate quickly.

“Two babes so young?”

“This from the pirate Captain who has faced murder mermaids and only recently gave up a two hundred year old vengeful quest to kill an immortal demon?”

He huffs a small laugh but the smile doesn’t reach his eyes. It’s not a surprise she doesn’t understand his concern. She has two hands with which to hold their children, after all.

“Killian-“

“Do I contribute enough?” His tone is a self-deprecating whisper as he rubs his blunted wrist down her back for added effect.

Her eyes widen and she immediately cups his whiskered cheeks, understanding finally dawning in her bright eyes.

“You do everything with Hope.” She leans closer and rubs her nose against his with cherished intimacy. “She doesn’t want for anything, Killian. You are more than an equal partner in raising her.”

When he’s silent a bit too long, she surges forward and kisses him, instantly swallowing his insecurity. With growing arousal, he allows himself to be swept up in the deep, reassuring plunder of her delectable mouth and wandering hands.

“You can do anything, Killian,” she breathes hotly against his lips. “Anything. Hope couldn’t have a better father and this little one will be just as blessed. It doesn’t matter if you have one hand or two.”

His nagging feeling of insecurity lingers until she wiggles her eyebrows suggestively and trails one hand down his chest, teasing and pinching gently toward her ultimate goal. His hips twitch in anticipation. “Now how about you show me just how capable you are before we go home and rescue our sweet, innocent daughter from my demon little brother?”

A thrill of desire spreads through his limbs as he hauls her closer, skin to skin. “He really is a little hellion.”

She nips at his lips, wraps one hand behind his neck to tug at the soft strands of his hair and trails her other hand down the firm length of him. “But he’d better be careful because the devilishly handsome Captain Hook is her father. Now come here, Captain, it’s time for more pillaging and plundering.”

He rolls her over and pins her to the bed, settling into the welcome cradle of her creamy thighs. “As you wish.”

Lightning flashes outside the window and rain pelts the deck above creating a symphony of sound punctuated by panting breaths and guttural groans as they celebrate the anniversary of their marriage and the promise of their ever expanding future.

****

The dark, foreboding storm rolls across the calm sea, swallowing the moonlight in its ominous grip while bolts of light arc brightly through the storm clouds and illuminate the Jolly Roger with bright bursts of electric radiance.

In the distance, the deluge of rain and inky, dangerous clouds besiege The United Realms of Storybrooke.

The forest is dark, and the thick trees and branches bend and rustle under the bruising torrent.

Lightening strikes the Troll Bridge with a thunderous crack and a flash of bright, blinding light. When it fades, a bewildered Neal, Milah and the Captain Liam Jones are standing in the smoky aftermath.

TBC

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	2. Chapter 2

“What the – where the hell are we?” Neal asks no one in particular, an air of disoriented annoyance creeping into his voice.

His two companions seem familiar but he can’t put a finger on why.

“I – don’t know.” The woman pats herself down like it’s the first time she’d seen her body in a long time. “The last thing I remember is being tossed into the River of Lost Souls.”

The older man whirls on her, eyes wide. “You were in the Underworld?”

Her eyes light with hopeful recognition but she keeps her response deliberately vague. “Yes, I was helping someone search for a – friend. But was pushed in by an angry, vengeful demon before I found him.”

“I’d moved on from there but – have no memory of what came after. Just – a feeling of,” the other man struggles to find the right word and Neal understands the feeling.

“Of contentment,” Neal offers, hackles rising at having that feeling ripped away.

“Yes,” The older man agrees and extends his hand. “Captain Liam Jones.”

Neal takes a step backward in surprise, mouth agape. He’d heard stories of this man. Long ago. In another life.

“Jones?” The hitch in the woman’s voice is like a punch to Neal’s gut. “Killian’s brother?”

Liam’s eyes blow wide with shock. “My little brother. You know him?”

Neal’s head swivels slowly toward her, eyes gulping in her features like a boy surrounded by a rampaging sea yet still dying of thirst.

“I- “

“Milah,” Neal says plainly, heart in his throat.

She turns a defensively skeptical eye on him. “Do I know you?”

He clears his throat and struggles to keep his voice steady. “I’m – your son. Baelfire.”

Milah swallows a shocked gasp and raises a hand hesitantly toward his face. “Bae?”

Neal offers her a small smile. “Hi mama.”

Tears drip down Milah’s cheeks as she pulls him into her arms. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” Her voice is muffled against his shoulder as she repeats the apology. “I should have come back for you. I –“

He stiffens for a moment but wraps her into his arms and squeezes his eyes shut against the sting of tears. They stand entwined for a long moment before they’re interrupted by beams of light piercing through the darkness and the approach of two police deputies.

The lead officer, a small woman wearing her mousy-hair in a tight ponytail, raises the walkie talkie in her hand, “You were right. New arrivals on the Troll Bridge. We’ll bring ‘em in for processing.”

Neal releases his mother to address the officers but before he has a chance to speak, Liam and his mother step forward and join him.

The officer’s olive-skinned partner raises his hands in a welcoming gesture. “Welcome to the United Realms of Storybrooke.”

***

Bursts of light flash through the cabin pulling the room’s two occupants from their sated slumber. Killian’s eyes flutter open and he glances down at Emma as she rubs her cheek against his shoulder and snuggles closer.

“Just a bit of a storm, love,” Killian envelops her in his arms, unconcerned with the repeated flash of light and pitter-patter of rain on the deck.

Her response is muffled as she buries her nose in his neck and yawns.

With overwhelming affection and need, his hand slides to her belly to protectively cradle the little life growing there. He presses a lingering kiss to her cheek when her fingers lace through his.

She lifts her head then and offers him a sleepy smile. “You ok?”

There are so many answers warring for dominance that the normally silver-tongued pirate struggles for a simple response. “It’s-“

“A little overwhelming?” she helpfully offers with a squeeze of his fingers as they lay across her flat belly.

“Aye.” He pulls her close, nuzzles his face into her tangled golden mane. “It took so long for Hope –I never thought-”

She wraps one hand around the back of his neck and pulls his head down to hers. Desire hot enough to rival the spectacle exploding in the overhead storm flares between them when their lips meet. After a breathless moment, they part and she huffs a little giggle. “But it’s ok?”

His eyes widen and shame threatens to overwhelm the urgency to reassure her. “Bloody hell, Emma. Yes! Forgive me if I gave you the impression that this babe would be anything but entirely welcome. We’re well on our way to supplying a whole new crew for the Jolly!”

A sparkle of mirth dances in her eyes as she flattens her hands atop his chest and pushes herself upright. “Whoa, mister. You better not be planning for me to pop out enough babies to crew this boat.”

He quickly wraps his arms around her and tugs her back down on top of him. “Ship, love. She’s a ship. Most magnificent one in all the realms, you know.” He twists a lock of golden hair around his finger and gives her a saucy wink. They’ll discuss babies later.

She settles atop him, legs tangling with his and fingernails scratching nonsensical patterns across his chest. “I may have heard some cocky, arrogant pirate say something of the sort.”

“I have earned every bit of that arrogance, darling.” He nips at her lips and grunts when she tweaks a pebbled nipple. She swallows his moan when her hand slides around its target and gives the rapidly swelling flesh a few strong, sure strokes.

“Let’s put it to good use, then.” She fuses their lips together and he can do nothing but groan into her mouth when she straddles his hips and sinks down on him, deft, sure grip holding him at just the right angle.

He gives himself over to her control with a dirty, suggestive chuckle, eyes crossing as she flattens her hands on his chest and begins to move.

***

Neal, Milah and Liam stand in the middle of Granny’s diner, each holding a backpack full of items given to them by the matronly woman who checked them in at Town Hall. The restaurant is closed but for a perky young woman who hands each of them a room key.

“I’m Heidi. I check in the newbies when they arrive in the middle of the night.” Her bubbly personality is something of an annoyance to the three people who still aren’t clear on the specifics of their arrival. “Tokens for meals are in your packs. Go ahead and get settled in your rooms. Granny will meet you at 9am sharp. She likes to give the lay of the land to everyone assigned to stay here.”

“I need to speak to David. Or Emma. She’s still the sheriff here, right?” Neal asks, annoyance creeping into his exhausted voice.

Heidi’s eyes light up like Christmas has come early. “You know the Prince and his daughter? That’s marvelous! Granny will be happy to know you’re from the Enchanted Forest. We don’t get many from there nowadays. Most are from other realms now.”

“Prince?” Liam asks, voice full of confusion.

“Princess?” Milah asks, clearly trying to reconcile the no-nonsense, determined woman she met briefly with the one Heidi is gushing over now. Neal will ask to hear more about it later. He and his mama hadn’t had much time to discuss it while waiting to be ‘processed’. But Emma meeting Killian’s former lover in the Underworld had to have been all manner of awkward.

“Well yeah. Famous family one and all!” Heidi points to their packs. “And the cell phones you were given have important numbers already programmed. I’m sure they showed you how to use them.” With a proud puff of her chest, she adds, “Granny’s is number two on the list.”

“Uh, I know it’s only the wee hours of the morning but I really must find my brother,” Liam says as he rubs his hand over his face.

“You have a brother in town? That’s great! Probably a bit early to be calling. But what’s his name. I can look up his contact information for you.”

“Killian Jones.”

Heidi’s eyes go wide. “Captain Hook is your brother?”

“Well – not when I knew him but – yes. The man is the same even if the moniker has changed. Does he still live in that home overlooking the sea?”

A wistful smile passes across her face. “Yeah, beautiful place. They’ve been there for a few years now.”

“Thank you,” Liam turns on his heel and walks out before she can stop him.

Neal throws his thumb over his shoulder. “Yeah, they’re friends of ours. We’ll go pay a visit and be back in time for our meeting with Granny.” He ushers Milah out of the restaurant before Heidi can protest.

Liam smiles as they join him. “A sailor always rises with the sun. By the time we reach the home, we won’t have long to wait.”

***

The rising sun casts an eerie crimson glow inside the cabin but Killian pays it no mind as he presses slow, open-mouthed kisses along Emma’s neck. His progress slows as he pays prompt attention to the soft curve of her breast while his tongue curls around a pert nipple.

With a gentle sigh, Emma’s hands slide into his soft hair and she huffs an amused giggle. “You’re gonna have to give those up again.”

He hums a response as his lips close around one taut peak and his fingers gently pinch its twin. After lavishing them with equal attention, he continues his exploration.

“A price worth the cost, darling.” He nuzzles her belly with a whiskered cheek and relaxes into the soft skin as her fingers scratch through his hair. “I can’t wait to meet you, little one.”

“Hope might be a little jealous, you know,” Emma says as she stretches luxuriously beneath him.

“Little P will love the new babe,” Killian says with an air of authority that will see it done and without fuss.

He tilts his head upward and meets her eyes, presses a lingering kiss to her belly and continues toward his most favorite treasure.

Challenge met, she holds his gaze as his tongue and mouth work her into an orgasmic wreck. Only at the very end does she break his gaze to groan her release into the rising sun as it spills into the cabin.

***

Liam approaches the house with excited anticipation, glad to see the rising sun over the clear horizon. “This was where I found Killian in the Underworld. I’m afraid I had a less than stellar first opinion of the lovely Emma.” He turns to Neal, something familiar about the man. “How do you know her again?”

Neal straightens, sets his jaw. “She’s the mother of my son.”

_That’s it_. He’d seen the familiar features in the determined young man he met the day he’d said a final goodbye to his brother. “The boy, Henry? I met him in the Underworld. He’d come to save Killian.”

“Yeah, he’s heroic like that.”

“A dangerous place for such a young lad to travel. Killian must have made quite the impression.”

“Or he didn’t want his mother to go alone.”

“Ok, you two,” Milah interrupts and as much as it annoys him, Liam knows its for the best. Such a competition would not end well and Liam is in no mood for a fight. He wants to reunite with his brother and give his apologies to Emma in person.

“Nice place,” Neal says offhandedly as they walk through the fenced gate.

At the base of the steps, Liam turns to Milah, “You never did say how you know Killian?”

Neal crosses his arms and offers her a sarcastic smirk, which Liam notices she pointedly ignores. There’s a story here and Liam gets the feeling that it’s going to be a complicated one.

“I sailed with him,” she says plainly, offering no further details. “After you – died.”

“During his pirating days.” He didn’t frame it as a question. He didn’t need to.

“Yes.”

“The two of you were-“ Liam leaves the question hanging.

“Lovers. Yes,” Milah confirms, chin jutting out just enough to indicate that she will tolerate no challenge.

Liam isn’t surprised. She appears to be a very strong-willed woman. Just the type that used to attract his rebellious brother. He heaves a huge breath. “I imagine this meeting is going to be awkward in more ways than one.”

“Oh yeah,” Neal offers not at all helpfully.

Liam climbs the stairs glances back at the sky. The sun has barely risen over the horizon and he’s loathe to wake his brother’s family at this hour. But as he hesitates, there is a muffled noise inside, and he decides to take the chance that someone is awake.

It takes only a moment but eventually a light flicks on and the door swings open.

“Who could possibly need something so early –“ The woman he remembers as Emma’s mother trails off, eyes widening a little more as they land on each face.

“Uh.” Snow stands rooted in place and very clearly at a complete loss for words.

“Hi Snow,” Neal says before Liam has a chance to find his voice to address the woman he’d only met a handful of times.

“Neal?” Her eyes go round as saucers as she gapes at him.

Liam bites back an errant tendril of jealousy that Neal has such familiarity with this woman but he doesn’t have a chance to examine why as a sudden cry from inside the house disrupts the moment. She quickly steps back, half-turned toward the interruption.

“Uh, come in. I just need to get the-.” She vanishes into the bowels of the home and Liam pushes ahead, leaving Neal and Milah to follow.

Because that was a baby and did his brother have a child? He needs to be the first to see. A tingle of anticipation rushes down his spine.

They all stop short with varying expressions of surprise once they reach the kitchen and watch as Snow fusses over a squirming dark-haired baby trying to escape the hard-shell bassinet sitting in the middle of the table.

Liam stares at the babe that is unmistakably Killian’s child, a warm rush of pride filling his blood.

“This is the first time she’s woken up without them here so it’s been a bit of a rough morning,” Snow pulls the baby into her arms, cooing and shushing and bouncing in a vain attempt to quiet the child.

When she glances back at them, Liam can see the questions swirling in her eyes. “How-how are you here?” She glances at Milah, “And who-“

“My mom,” Neal answers before Snow can finish.

If her eyes could have popped any further out of Snow’s head, they would have. “Milah.”

“We don’t know how,” Neal offers with a shrug. “We just – appeared on the Troll Bridge.”

Snow raises her finger to shush any more unbelievable information and digs one-handed into the pocket of her pajama pants. The cell phone is dialing before it even reaches her ear.

Once connected, the urgent tone leaves no room for argument. “I need you to come over here right away. We’re fine but I need you. Right now.” She disconnects the phone and stares at it for a moment, considering.

“Emma and Killian are out on the Jolly Roger for an overnight anniversary celebration. I’m sure their phones don’t work out on the water but – I’m going to leave them a message anyway.” She dials before anyone has a chance to speak.

Liam steps forward and offers to take the fussy baby. Snow considers for a moment and then releases the child into her uncle’s arms. “Okay, just for a minute.”

Liam cuddles the babe against his chest and a wide smile spreads across his face. “Hello, little one.”

The baby stares wide-eyed at him and quiets instantly.

“Aren’t you just the most precious little thing.” A tremor of familiarity races down his spine as he gazes into the babe’s crystal blue eyes and he remembers when he’d had the honor of holding his newborn brother in his arms. “You look just like Killian when he was your age.”

They wait in silence as the phone rings but no one picks up the other end of the line. Snow starts speaking anyway. “Hi, Emma, I’m sure you won’t get this until you get back. And nothing is wrong, I promise, but come home as soon as you get this message, okay? Hope is fine so don’t worry. See you soon.”

“How long has it been?” Neal asks as he glances around the cozy house.

Only a few short steps into the front room, they find a baby crib filled with plush animals over which a nautical-themed mobile hangs. At the other end of the long room; a cozy fireplace where photos of a teenaged Henry, the Evil Queen Regina, as well as elegantly framed wedding photos sit atop the mantle.

Liam detects the hesitance in Snow’s demeanor but she responds anyway. “Emma and Killian have been married for five years. ”

She suddenly dials her phone again and they wait in silence until the other line clicks open. The woman at the other end of the line speaks first.

“Really?” The voice drips with annoyance, “You couldn’t handle the little pampered pirate princess for one night?”

“Not the time, Regina.” Snow says with a heavy sigh. “Can you come over here right now? Preferably the magic way.”

The tone immediately changes to one of concern. “What’s going on? The kid ok?”

Suddenly the front door swings open and David darts in, his arms wrapped around his sleepy five year old son. “Snow, what’s –“ He stops short when he sees Liam, Neal and Milah. “-the emergency?”

“Just come. Quickly.” Snow hangs up the phone and pulls a groggy Neal out of David’s arms.

“We have some unexpected company, David.”

“And before you ask, we don’t know how,” Neal answers, rubbing his eyes. “We just appeared on the Troll Bridge.“

A poof of purple smoke heralds the arrival of a perfectly coifed Regina, arms raised for battle. As her gaze settles on Neal and swoops sideways to Milah and Liam, her eyes narrow to tiny, suspicious slits.

“What the hell?”

Snow walks over to the playpen and settles Neal into it. “Be a big boy and play with Hope for me, okay?” She pulls the baby out of Liam’s arms and settles her into the playpen with Neal.

Liam remembers David from the Underworld and his dumfounded understandable “Uh, have you called-“

“They’re at sea, David,” Snow says matter-of-factly, “Emma didn’t pick up. If you think Killian will, give him a call.”

“Anniversary trip, remember?” Regina reminds them, lip curled up with extreme distaste. She doesn’t need to elaborate. Everyone knows what they would be busy doing.

“Right.” Snow’s uncomfortable gaze flits from each person in the room, not lingering for long on any one of them.

“I can’t poof them back. Magic doesn’t work in any reliable way outside the town border.” Regina’s very direct explanation has Snow scowling and David walking away, his cell already connecting with yet another unanswered line.

“Hey, it’s David. Hope is fine. Don’t worry. Give me or Snow a call when you get in. Or just come straight home. Thanks.” David disconnects the line and turns around just in time for Neal to ask-

“Where’s Henry?”

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note:  
> I’m not happy with this chapter but I don’t have a beta reader to tell me when I don’t have something right so – I’m depending on you readers to tell me. If I’ve gotten something glaringly wrong, I’ll happily correct it so please let me know.


	3. Chapter 3

A shadow falls over Emma as she stands at the wheel, completely focused on keeping the ship steady in a sea currently devoid of obstacles.

Despite the pleasant ache in her limbs, heat simmers beneath her skin when Killian appears behind her, wraps an arm around her waist and nuzzles the back of her neck. His hook lands at the top of the wheel and skilled fingers slip beneath the waistband of her jeans to splay across her flat belly.

Emma rubs her face against his whiskered cheek and leans back into his warmth. “Closer, it’s cold.”

“Mmm,” he hums, fingers sliding even lower.

She releases the wheel and reaches back to grip the edges of his long, leather pea coat. Tugs it around her even as his fingers pop the button on her jeans and slip through her already damp heat. Her eyes flutter shut and she widens her stance to give him easier access.

“That’s it, love.” His dirty, suggestive chuckle sends tendrils of desire straight to her groin. “Open up.”

“No teasing, Killian,” Emma breathes when one long, skilled finger finds its target. “We’re almost home.”

“Not to worry, darling,” his lilting accent a whisper of heated promise against her neck. “We’ll be finished long before we pull into port.”

She groans as his talented fingers tease for a long torturous moment before plunging deep. Her hips arch into his hand, aching for more pressure, more girth. More. Just more. They don’t have time but she’s not going to complain if he feels the need to coax a quick orgasm out of her.

“Killian.” Her breath is a whispered plea and she shudders when his teeth come down on that sensitive hollow of skin where her neck meets her shoulder.

“I’ve got you, love.”

With his busy hand, he holds her in place and from behind, his hips rub sinfully against her backside. His thumb teasingly circles her already sensitive little gem and she huffs an exasperated grunt into the air.

“All good things come to those who-“

The hazy outline of the docks comes into view and Emma bites back a strained moan.

“Done waiting.” She suddenly yanks down the zipper of her jeans and plunges her hand into her pants. While one hand still clutches his coat, the other immediately slides his teasing fingers to the exact spot she wants them to be.

“Mmm,” he chuckles darkly into her ear. “That’s cheating, love.”

“I did marry a pirate,” she retorts as the pressure grows. Her head lolls back against his chest as another skilled digit slips into her wet heat.

The combination of his raspy tongue on her neck and his fingers working their magic between her legs has her screaming a loud release into the sun-filled sky where no one but they and the gulls can hear. She sags against him to ride out the high and twitches as his fingers brush across her sensitive skin when he pulls them out of her jeans.

After taking a moment to catch her breath, she whirls in his arms, hands immediately dropping to the waistband of his own jeans.

He stops her with a gentle kiss and a forward nod. “Later, love. We’re home.”

She glances back over her shoulder to see the familiar docks growing closer with each slosh of the waves against the Jolly’s enchanted hull.

With a saucy wink, he pops his fingers into his mouth and licks them clean. All the while steering the ship into port with only his metal hook.

She alternates between glancing at his hook on the wheel and the way his tongue curls around his fingers to lick them clean. “You really are a hell of a Captain.”

His eyebrows wiggle suggestively and he tilts his head to hotly whisper into the corner of her mouth. “And don’t you forget it.”

***

Snow glances uncomfortably at David, Liam and Milah as an annoyed Neal faces off against Regina and she is tempted to just walk away and let the two of them go at it over Henry.

Because while Snow had met Liam before in the Underworld, she’s never met Milah and is eager to know more about the woman whose death her son-in-law (and there’s never a time that won’t be weird) had sought for two hundred years to avenge.

But she feels a sense of loyalty to Regina and stands on the sidelines, ready to jump into the fray if needed.

“You mean you let him go with no way to contact him?” The accusation hangs in the air as Neal glares at Regina, the disappointment that he can’t immediately see his son evident.

“Oh no you don’t.” Her tone is haughty, final and punctuated by a very pointed finger. “You don’t get to critique my parenting skills. You were a father for all of a few weeks. I raised Henry for 18 years.”

“Emma wouldn’t just let him go.” He glances over at the playpen where Hope lay and Snow has a sinking feeling he’s about to say something he’s going to regret. “She wouldn’t replace him.”

Snow bites back an exasperated groan _. Dammit_. She hates it when she’s right.

She jumps in immediately to diffuse the situation. “That’s not what’s happened here.” She fixes Neal with her most admonishing mom glare. “And you know it.”

Neal backs down instantly, though disappointment still swirls in his eyes. “I know. I just- “

Snow rests a comforting hand on his arm. “Miss him. We understand. And we’ll figure out what’s brought all three of you back here. But – one thing at a time.”

Sufficiently chastised, he steps back and offers Snow a wry smile. “Yeah. I’m sorry. I overreacted. I’m gonna go take a walk to clear my head.”

Regina scowls at his retreating back as the rest of them silently watch him leave.

“We’ll be back,” Milah says quickly and follows her son out the door.

“And here we thought the last five years had been too peaceful.” Regina rolls her eyes with a final scowl toward the closed door.

Snow raises her coffee mug with an exasperated, “Happy Anniversary.”

***

Milah hurries to catch Neal as he briskly marches away from the house. It’s the first time they’ve had a moment alone and she’s eager to just simply talk to him, even if he’s being unreasonably angry. “Bae!”

“You didn’t need to follow me,” he says, slowing to allow her to catch up.

“You’re my son and I love you. I never want you to doubt that.”

His eyes soften. “I don’t. Not anymore.”

Silenced stretches between them and she can sense he wants to speak but is holding himself back. “You can ask me anything, you know.”

“Did papa really kill you?”

Milah can feel him steel himself for a truth he doesn’t want to hear but she forges ahead with it anyway. Pulling punches has never been her strong suit.

“He crushed my heart on the deck of the Jolly Roger. Right in front of Killian, who he’d tied to the mast with his magic.” Milah says bluntly. She would never forget the sting of death and the shocked despair in Killian’s eyes as she uttered her final words.

“He told me,” Neal admits with a sigh. “And I didn’t believe him.”

“Who?”

“Killian.” Neal shakes his head, clearing it and clarifying at the same time. “He found me in Neverland as a child. Kidnapped by Pan.”

While she truly believes she no longer harbors any feelings for her former lover, and had told Emma so in the Underworld, she would like to hear more about what became of him after she’d died. So she listens patiently as they walk. She understands patience now. Understands very well after two hundred plus years in the Underworld paying penance for abandoning her son.

“I didn’t believe him. I accused him of tearing apart my family. Even when he told me he would change for me. To – raise me.” Neal glances sidelong at her, emotion swirling in his eyes, ”For you.”

She’s not surprised. It was always Killian who asked about her boy. If it was time to go back for him. “It was my fault we never went back for you. He asked every year. And every year I said it wasn’t the right time.” Milah steels herself for a burst of anger but it never comes.

“He told me that, too.”

They walk in silence for a few minutes, until the street rounds a corner to give them a spectacular view of the docks.

“Ah,” Milah exhales slowly, understanding dawning.

Neal shoots her a sidelong, sheepish look and admits, “I wanted to meet them at the docks without everyone watching.”

She squints at the sea and arches her neck toward the ship-shaped spec on the horizon. “Good timing.”

***

From a concealed distance, Neal and Milah wait for the Jolly Roger to finish docking.

Killian stands at the wheel and masterfully guides his ship, while Emma stands ready to release the anchor at his command; something Milah remembers doing countless times. But her eyes don’t leave his devilishly handsome face, astonishingly unchanged in the two hundred years since she last saw him.

Milah feels Neal’s eyes on her. “You haven’t seen him since you died.”

“No,” She huffs a sarcstic laugh. “Rumple tossed me into the River of Lost Souls before Emma made it back with him from Hades’ lair in the Underworld.”

They watch Emma release the anchor and then step back to the wheel and into his arms. The happy smiles on their faces visible even from a distance and the tender shared kiss even more so.

Just as Neal moves forward to make themselves known, both Emma and Killian pull their phones out of their pockets and listen to the twin messages Milah knows will be from Snow and David.

Before Neal or Milah can wave down the suddenly concerned couple, Emma and Killian vanish in a puff of white smoke.

“Huh,” Neal gawks at the now empty ship. “She couldn’t do that the last time I saw her.”

***

A sudden poof of white smoke silences the occupants of the house as Emma and Killian appear in their living room, worry etched across their faces.

Snow’s reaction is immediate as she steps forward to intercept them, “Didn’t my message say there was nothing wrong?”

“Where’s Hope?” Emma asks, eyes quickly darting toward where she knew the playpen to be. But as she feels Killian stiffen beside her, she cuts her scan short to glance sidelong at him. Following his wide eyes to where they’ve landed on Liam, holding little Hope in his arms.

Killian’s voice is a breathy question. “Liam?”

Liam takes a few steps toward Killian, a proud smile on his face. “Hello little brother.”

Emma and Killian’s questioning eyes dart from Snow to David to Regina and back to Liam all in the span of a few milliseconds.

“How – how is this possible?” Killian breathes and she slides her hand into his to ground him. He squeezes back in gratitude even if his eyes remain locked on his brother.

“We’re not quite sure yet,” Regina begins, tossing a skeptical glare in Liam’s direction. “We were waiting for you to get home before I retreated to my vault to do some research.”

As Regina explains, Killian envelopes Liam in a tight hug, careful not to squeeze Hope too tightly. The immense relief and stunned joy on his face cools her pinprick of suspicion at again setting eyes on the man who didn’t think she was good enough for his little brother.

“She looks just like you,” Liam hands Hope over, her bright blue eyes laser focused on her papa the moment he is close enough for her to reach.

Killian pulls her carefully into his arms and presses the gentlest of kisses to her pale cheek. “Hello, Little P. You’ve had a bit of an adventure while we’ve been gone.”

“Well, two heads are always better than one,” Emma says to Regina, shifting her weight uncomfortably from one foot to another. Her last interaction with Liam Jones had not been entirely friendly and she’d rather the brothers have the time to get reacquainted – without her. “I’ll go with you.” She ignores Killian’s surprised look.

“I need to find a way to reach Henry, too. So let me get to that first. We don’t quite know what realm he chose to start his adventure.”

Emma’s brows knit together in confusion. “Henry? Why?”

“Well,” Regina begins with customary sarcasm and a carefully controlled roll of her eyes, “big brother over there wasn’t the only one that mysteriously came back from the dead on the Troll Bridge last night.”

Before anyone can ask, the door swings open and a breathless Neal and Milah burst through.

Killian and Emma stand rooted to the floor, identical thunderstruck looks on their faces as they stare into the faces of their formerly dead lovers.

Neal’s eyes immediately find Emma’s and he offers her a wry smile. “Hi, Em.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Emma notices Milah’s gaze land immediately on Killian and an uncomfortable chill races straight down her spine.

Memory of the older woman’s voice the last time they’d met echoes with a hollow thud in her chest.

_‘My unfinished business was never Killian.’_

***

At the wishing well, a bright burst of light heralds the arrival of a tall, darkly attractive man wearing sleek, golden battle regalia. He strides through the wood with purpose, a shield depicting a bloody battle fastened to his arm, regal sword sheathed at his waist and a golden helmet on his head that gleams brightly in the morning light.

A forceful gust of wind whips his cloak around his long, lean legs and the murderous look in his deep black eyes warns anyone who dare cross his path to give him a wide berth.

His stride slows to a stop once he reaches a hilly overlook. Below, the streets are flush with people and above them, the Storybrooke clocktower ticks silently away.

He flicks open his hand and a burst of blue flame springs brightly to life in the familiar form of the now deceased God of the Underworld.

“I will avenge you, Uncle. And since my father has cast me out of Olympus, I will rule with an iron fist the Realm where you met your inglorious end.”

Ares, God of War, clenches his fists and vanishes in a swirl of misty red and inky black smoke.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Liked it? Hated it? Find a glaring error ?
> 
> Leave a review and let me know!


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4** :

Everyone starts speaking at once and the angelic smile on Hope’s face contorts into a precursor to a tantrum. It starts out as a whimper and grows in intensity as the din of unknown voices around her rises.

Emma quickly hurries to Killian’s side and wraps her arms protectively around the child already cradled tightly against her father’s chest. Lights flicker as Emma tries to comfort the agitated baby.

Frames on the fireplace mantle fall over and a bulb in a nearby light explodes into tiny shards that Regina instantly contains within a small bubble of hastily cast magic.

This sets off five year old Neal, who darts up the stairs to get away from the noise. David immediately takes off after his boy.

Emma quickly turns to the room and screams, “Stop!”

Silence immediately follows, punctuated by Hope gulping air through her screaming lungs and Killian attempting to sooth her.

Regina twists her hand and the glass bulb shards vanish. “Well, that’s new.”

Killian and Emma hold Hope tightly, their murmurs quieting her until all that remains are small, hiccupping sobs.

“She hasn’t shown any hint of magic,” Emma’s hands smooth over the dark hair and wipe tears off round, puffy cheeks.

“Well, that’s stupid,” Regina rolls her eyes. “She’s the poster child for magic potential.”

“I know. I know. We just didn’t think,” Emma says with an exasperated sigh.

“So the little one has magic?” Liam asks, eyes betraying his awe that a member of his family could have such potential.

“It would seem so,” Killian nuzzles his cheek against Hope’s dark hair and she tilts her head up to meet his eyes; an entire conversation between father and daughter happening without a word spoken. “It’s something new every day, isn’t it, Little P?” She hiccups as he gently kisses away an errant tear from her cheek.

“Now that that’s settled.” Regina extends her hands toward Neal, Liam and Milah. “Back to the other lovely morning surprise.”

“We don’t know why we’re here,” Neal says with a shrug. “I was – happy. That’s all I remember. The feeling. And – where’s Henry? I’d like to see my son.”

Emma is glad Henry is the first on his mind. It’s as it should be. “And your father, I assume?” They’d parted on good terms. And so she expects he’ll want to see his father as well.

“Rumple is here, too? That beast shoved me into the River of Lost Souls,” Milah offers with a defiant hiss.

Killian stiffens and his lip curls into an angry snarl. “What?” He turns to Emma, as confused by the revelation as she. “But you said-“

“Wait.” Emma holds up her hands, concerned that emotions will spiral out of control again and upset Hope. “Gold told us Hades was responsible. You were right there with me.“

“He lied,” Milah confirms and Emma searches the older woman’s eyes for any hint of untruth. There is none. “He made a deal with Hades while I was an unwilling witness. He had to get rid of me because he knew I would warn you.”

“Of course he did,” Killian growls, eyes darkening with barely contained fury.

As if sensing her father’s growing ire, Hope’s tiny fingers tug at his shirt, drawing his attention away from Milah.

Emma is immensely grateful for the baby’s ability to completely derail his temper. “Okay, okay. It’s in the past. Let’s leave it there.” She rests her hand on Killian’s arm, imploring with soft green eyes to let it go.

“For now,” Killian mutters through clenched teeth and Emma knows she’ll get no further concession from him. The wounds and the history were far too deep with this particular subject. Now made even more challenging since that subject was standing very much alive in their house.

“Arthur freed all the souls from the River,” Milah offers with a small smile. “He’s done much to help everyone to move on.”

“So it truly is the broken kingdom he was meant to rebuild,” Killian says with a distant look in his eyes. Reliving a memory of a conversation Emma is certain he’s never shared.

“That’s very poetic,” Snow says, eyes settling on the newly resurrected trio.

“Why don’t we all go to Grannys for lunch?” David suggests as he descends the stairs with a now calm Neal. “Get some food in us while we tackle the town’s newest puzzle.”

“That’s a great idea,” Snow seconds with an excited smile.

“I’ll stop by the The Cove on the way.” Killian says, pressing a kiss to Hope’s cheek.

“The Cove?” Liam asks.

“The Mermaid’s Cove. Killian’s pub,” Emma says with a proud smile. “Being a sheriff’s deputy wasn’t exiting enough, apparently.” Her husband takes the teasing in stride, used to it by now. “He prefers tossing drunk people out onto the street for me to handle.”

“You operate a – tavern?” The disgust on Liam’s face and in his tone is palpable.

“A lucratively reputable business, brother,” Killian assures with a smile but Emma’s hackles go up instantly when Liam doesn’t immediately believe him.

“Okay,” Regina interrupts with her customary directness, “I imagine this is going to descend into an argument I don’t need to witness so I’ll meet everyone at Granny’s.”

“Take Neal and Milah with you,” Emma insists while glaring daggers at Liam.

“Fine.” Regina throws up a hand and she, Neal and Milah vanish in a puff of purple smoke.

“I beg to differ, brother,” Liam insists, attitude haughty. “I spent a great amount of time dragging you out of taverns, having gambled away our meager earnings with game or drink. And now you operate one?”

Emma notices Killian’s smile vanish under his brother’s blunt scrutiny and out of the corner of her eye, catches the incredulous look exchanged between David and Snow. There is likely a lot she doesn’t yet know about her husband’s long, storied life, but he has told her about his beginnings, his temper and his failings growing up as an indentured slave. And Liam has clearly hit on a long buried shame.

“It isn’t as you think,” Killian begins but the self-righteous Liam interrupts, much to Emma’s growing ire.

“A law enforcement officer is a respectable job,” Liam presses, his tone at once coercive and reprimanding. “We fought hard to be respectable, Killian.”

Emma can see her husband’s temper start to unravel and like a train wreck is powerless to stop it from barreling down its pre-determined track.

“You mean you fought,” Killian hissed between clenched teeth. “I only held you back.”

“We’ve hashed this, Killian.”

“And yet you still proudly hold that bar unreachably high, even after you made that foolish deal with Hades,” Killian snarls and Emma winces inwardly as Hope lifts her head off his shoulder, eyes scrunching as she senses his growing unease.

“That deal saved your life.”

Emma wants to fling a bit of painful magic at the self-righteous bastard but holds back, trusting that at this point, Killian will do it instead.

“I stopped trying to reach that bar long ago, Liam.”

Emma nearly steps in to correct the untruth but as much as she desperately wants to defend her husband, she needs to let him do it on his own. She notices Killian’s clenched jaw, evidence that he’s about to handle it poorly.

“That is evident.”

Emma notices David make a move to step forward, only to be held back by Snow’s iron grip on his arm and a quick shake of her head not to interfere. Emma feels a sense of pride that her father wants to come to her husband’s defense. They’d come a long way and become good friends over the years.

Her willingness to wait until Killian takes his brother down a peg wanes as Hope, sensing her father’s distress, starts to whimper. She can see the hesitation in his eyes as they settle on his little girl, an unwillingness to argue with his brother while she is present.

“Get out,” Killian hisses as the decibel level emanating from Hope grows.

Killian steps back to comfort his crying daughter. “I’m sorry, Little P. Shh. It’s ok.”

Emma pushes into the space between the brothers when she notices a retort poised on Liam’s lips. Happy to magic his mouth shut if he so much as thinks about directing another insulting retort her husband’s way.

“You’re overreacting,” she snaps at Liam. “And you need to leave.” Her seething glare would have burned a less haughty man. “I suggest you do it on your own before I do it for you.”

Liam looks like he is going to argue but wisely decides against it. So he turns on his heel and exits the house.

Killian watches him go with angry, hurt eyes before steeling himself to look at his family. “Let me just calm her a tick.” He says and hikes up the steps with the wailing Hope.

Snow follows him and while Emma appreciates that her mother wants to help, she knows Killian isn’t in any frame of mind to accept it. She shoots a pleading look at her father who immediately takes off after his wife.

Emma clenches and unclenches her fists for a long, calming moment before marching out of the house to intercept Liam and give him a long overdue piece of her mind.

***

David reaches a determined Snow just before she makes it to the top stoop and his attempt to keep her from following Killian is met with a momentary furious glare.

“David, no.” She pulls her arm from his gentle grasp. “I’ll make sure Killian is ok but you need to go stop Emma from ripping Liam’s arms off and beating him with them.”

David’s eyes widen in shock, clearly not realizing that Emma likely sent him after Snow so there would be no one to stop her from going after Liam.

“Damn.”

Snow exhales in relief, thankful that her diversion worked, as he turns and hurries back down the steps. It was partially true, of course, Emma would likely go right after Liam but she also didn’t think Killian needed both of his in-laws checking in on him.

Snow slows as she approaches the nursery, listening as Killian whispers gently to his little girl. Her cries have all but stopped and she is only sniffling now, head resting on his vested shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Little P.” He shifts her to his hooked arm so he can wipe away her tears with gentle fingers. “Shall we rock for a bit?” He presses the softest of kisses to each damp cheek and sinks into the antique wooden rocking chair Snow and David had given them as a baby gift.

Snow smiles warmly as Hope settles, gazing out the large window that gives them an expansive view of the sea.

Little hiccups are all that remains of the fierce cries and Snow watches with growing affection for her daughter’s husband as he starts to hum a little nautical tune. She listens, with tears slowly gathering at the corner of her eyes, to the haunting words of the song that speaks of an abandoned boy who eventually finds a family on the sea.

With a watery smile, and a new memory of Killian rocking his daughter to a softly sung sea shanty burning itself into her mind, she walks quietly away.

***

Emma flings her magic at the white gate just as Liam’s hand reaches it. When it doesn’t move, Liam tries again and then turns, knowing he can hear her march loudly down the front steps.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Emma hisses, eyes hard and stance rigid as she approaches.

“I’m sorry. I know we’ve had our differences,” Liam starts but she is in no mood to hear it.

“You mean me not being good enough for Killian?”

He has the grace to look embarrassed. As he should. “I – may have been wrong about-”

“So many things,” She hisses.

“But – a tavern? Killian is so much better than-“

“You,” Emma growls, eyes flaring with heated anger. “That’s obvious.”

“Drink and dice are his weakness. It sets a bad example for-,” Liam begins but she cuts him off.

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence.” If the daggers she was glaring at Liam were bullets, he’d be long dead. “I know what kind of man Killian used to be.” She can feel her magic rippling beneath her skin, eager to be set loose. “Everyone has events in their past that they regret. He’s worked hard to move past his. But you still only seem to see that troubled kid who you had to rescue from his own bad decisions.”

“A tavern,” Liam spits the word as if it’s a curse just as David comes down the steps to lend his quiet support. Neal squirms in his arms but David holds him tightly.

Emma glares at him side-eyed. “I thought you were staying with-“

But David directs his first comment at Liam. “A pub here in our world isn’t like an Enchanted Forest tavern.”

Emma’s mouth snaps shut. She hadn’t considered that Liam might have misunderstood the type of business Killian owned. The one tavern she’d visited in the Enchanted Forest definitely was a disreputable establishment that offered gambling and prostitution as well as copious amounts of drink.

“Why don’t I give you a tour,” David offers. He sets Neal down and prompts the boy to go to his mother just as Snow comes down the steps. “I’m taking Liam to the _The Cove_.”

Without waiting another minute, David and pushes Liam out the gate, giving him little choice but to acquiesce.

Emma turns helplessly to Snow, “I think we all just had a huge misunderstanding.”

“David will straighten it out,” Snow says with confidence and Emma is grateful for her sound, calm judgment. “Now how about you go get your husband and daughter and we meet everyone at Grannys?”

***

Guards wearing frocks emblazoned with a large heart line the walkway as Ares is escorted to the front of the castle hall. He glides with confidence, eyes alighting on the young Queen to whom he’s asked to be introduced.

The young Queen stands at the head of the dais, dressed in a slimming but elegant red and black gown, haughty and completely focused on his approach.

“You will kneel before the Queen of Hearts,” the poshly dressed attendant commands.

A slow, rakish smile spreads across Ares’ face as the young Queen unabashedly gives him a thorough onceover, not bothering to hide her curiosity and - attraction.

He executes a flawless half-bow. Respectful. But not submissive. Never submissive. He knows the vanity of a royal lineage. “Aptly named, I see.”

“Wonderland is no longer the gloriously feared kingdom it once was. What do you want?”

Ares confidently saunters closer, eyes never breaking their hold on hers. Spears held by the guards flanking the Queen cross with a loud clang and stop him in his tracks.

“I wish to assist in restoring Wonderland to its former glory.”

“That is not possible. We are now part of the newly United Realms. “

“By choice?” Ares interrupts and is not surprised when she answers negatively.

Her eyes narrow into suspicious slits. “No.”

Ares smoothly parts the spears and approaches the Queen, eyes unflinching, his sole focus intense as he leers at the young, beautiful girl.

She waves her personal guards away and lets him approach, scrutinizing him from head to toe.

A manipulative smile spreads across his face as he bows low before her. “I can change your fortunes in this new realm.”

The Queen instantly dismisses the guards. “Out. Now.”

Once they’re alone, he leans closer, eyeing her with a predatory gleam that she confidently returns.

“How?” She asks, entranced.

“Why, with a war, of course,” he answers smoothly, eyes dancing as he leans back and allows her deviously bemused eyes to rake down his well-toned body.

She steps closer, wraps her hands around his bent arm, eyes gleaming with devious intent. “Tell me more.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Liked it? Hated it? Leave a review and let me know!  
> Still not beta’d. If anyone knows this series well and wants to beta for me, let me know. And leave me a way to contact you!


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5:**

Emma smiles softly from the doorway as Killian’s quiet song comes to an end. With light steps, she stops beside him and threads the fingers of one hand through his hair while gently resting the other on a now sleeping Hope’s head.

Emotion swirls in his expressive gaze as he lifts his eyes to hers. Even after five years of marriage, such a look still makes her weak in the knees and she leans down to plant a gentle kiss to his mouth.

“That one always works,” she whispers against his lips. “I think it’s my favorite.”

“It took all of them today.” He glances regretfully down at the sleeping babe.

Emma gently lifts Hope out of his arms and settles her into the elegantly carved, sea-themed crib; a gift Killian had commissioned from Marco when he’d learned she was pregnant. She tucks the baby in and returns to Killian, still sitting and gazing contemplatively out at the sea. He doesn’t have to speak for her to know Liam’s ignorant words had stung.

Emma takes his hand and pulls him to his feet. Steps into his arms and pours all of her love for him into a tight embrace. “David took Liam to The Cove.”

His silence is disconcerting and Emma leads him from the nursery, quietly closing the door behind her.

Once they reach the master bedroom, she closes the door and seals them into their private, intimate cocoon.

“I apologize for losing my temper,” he says quietly, shame clouding his eyes. “I haven’t been tempted into such anger in a long time.”

She wraps his arms around her and leans heavily against his chest. “You have nothing to be ashamed of, Killian. Everyone has things in their past they aren’t proud of. Even your self-righteous brother.”

He shoots her a wry smile, ”Did you leave him with any limbs?”

Emma laughs and hugs him close, nuzzles her nose into his neck. “David took him to The Cove to show him that pubs in this world are nothing like the sordid, disreputable taverns of the Enchanted Forest.”

“You mean-“ he exhales sharply. “This was all a misunderstanding?”

“Probably.”

He shoves a hand through his already unruly hair. “Bloody hell.”

“Liam’s self-righteous attitude was overdue for an adjustment anyway.”

He huffs a laugh. “You’re biased, love.”

She wraps her arms around his shoulders and pulls him close. “Damn right.”

***

Granny bustles more attentively than normal around the table refilling glasses and plates as Regina, Neal and MIlah are engrossed in conversation.

“How can you not know where Henry is?” Neal asks, dumfounded.

“I don’t like what you’re insinuating here,” Regina snaps with a scowl. “We have normal check ins. One just doesn’t happen to be scheduled for another few months.”

“No. There’s something else going on.” Regina scrutinizes him and as he glances uncomfortably over her shoulder toward the door, she suddenly understands. “Better smother that jealousy now or the pirate will do it for you – at hook-point.”

“I’m not jealous,” Neal denies but Regina doesn’t believe a word of it.

“Don’t forget, I was here when the two of you fought like children over Emma in Neverland.”

Milah cocks her head at her son. “You didn’t.”

“He told me when we got back that he would step aside and give Emma and me a chance to be a family with Henry.”

“He did,” Regina confirms. “And then you died.”

“Yeah.” Neal frowns and picks at the fries on his plate. “How fortunate for him.”

“It’s not healthy to dwell on might-have-bens, Bae,” Milah counsels with an understanding smile. “I’ve had hundreds of years to think about them myself.”

“Yeah, about that,” Regina pries, concerned with the potential for ridiculous drama that could be unleashed on her town because of their unexpected arrival.

Milah holds up her hand with a shake of her head. “It’s good to see Killian again but our story ended long ago.”

“He spent 200 years trying to kill Rumplestiltskin because of you,” Regina prods, considering it better for Milah to get rid of any lingering feelings now so she doesn’t have to handle the competitive fallout later.

“I’m sure some part of me will always love him but he wasn’t my unfinished business in the Underworld.” She covers Neal’s hand with her own. “My son was. And I am so grateful to whatever who God saw fit to reunite us now.”

“Speaking of,” Regina begins, genuinely curious how and why these three very specific people had been sent back from the dead. “Captain Guyliner said Zeus sent him back from the Underworld because he helped defeat Hades.”

“You think Zeus sent us back?” Milah asks, wonder in her eyes.

“Why now?” Neal questions with a shrug.

“Why, indeed,” Regina contemplates the complexities of their lives in Storybrooke as Snow slides into the seat beside her.

She settles five-year old Neal into her lap and helpfully offers, “Maybe there’s another God in town to defeat?”

***

David and Liam stand on the sidewalk, the elegant, sea-themed woodwork façade outside the ‘The Mermaid’s Cove’ inviting to the most wary patron. An intricately detailed carved wooden sign depicting a Mermaid bursting through the sea protrudes from above the doorway as David pulls out a key and opens the door.

He flicks on the light and enters while Liam stands in the entryway, stunned awe spreading across his face.

David waits patiently as Liam takes in the nautical décor lining the walls and the intricately carved Mermaid figureheads normally found on the front of a tall ship bookending the polished wooden bar. The small stage inset into one corner with enough room for a band, had turned out to be a popular feature over the years.

“It’s…” Liam can’t find the words and David breathes a sigh of relief.

“Nothing like our sordid taverns in the Enchanted Forest,” David prompts, and pins Liam in place with a judgmental look, encouraging him to agree.

“No,” Liam exhales slowly and walks around the space, stopping to examine every piece of décor adorning the walls. When Liam reaches the bar, he flattens his hands atop it, lost in thought.

“I owe Killian an apology.”

“Yes, you do,” David confirms, glad he won’t have to straighten out Liam’s opinion at the end of a sword.

“My brother has loyal friends,” Liam says with no hint of malice.

“It wasn’t always so,” David admits, thinking back with a wry grin. “We came to blows a few times.”

Liam’s eyebrow rises much less spectacularly than his brother’s. “Truly?”

“Oh I hated him. And when he declared his interest in my daughter, I told him he wasn’t good enough. That he was only a dirty pirate, ” David trails off, the memory an unpleasant reminder of how he’d once poorly treated his son-in-law.

“I imagine he didn’t take that well.”

“He saved my life,” David says with a bemused smile.

“My brother’s a good man. Always has been, despite his stumbles,” Liam admits as he continues to take in the carefully selected décor; every bit a reminder of his brother. “I’m a hypocrite of the highest order. I jumped to a conclusion I had no right to assume, especially since I tended something similar in the Underworld. I just -,” he trails off, gathering his thoughts, and then continues. “I remember so vividly his proclivity for the unsavory elements of our realm. I should have trusted him. I need earn back his respect.”

Commotion on the street outside the bar draws their attention and David hurries to the door, Liam at his heels.

Two men, one wearing knights garb of Wonderland and another, a Storybrooke resident, land drunken punches one after the other. David catches incoherent mutterings about whose kingdom is better before he pulls them apart.

Just as the two men separate, the Wonderland knight swings and lands a glancing blow to his jaw. The Storybrooke resident’s eyes widen when the Knight’s fist strikes his king and hurries out of the area.

Liam comes to David’s aid and together they subdue the knight who hisses and spits at them in drunken anger.

“Just you wait! You’ll regret crossing me!” The knight twists out of their grip and runs off.

Liam starts to give chase but David holds him back, cell phone already in hand.

“Let him go. I’ll call the station and they can pick him up. We’re late for lunch.”

***

Ares levels a smoldering look at the Queen of Wonderland as she lounges completely sated in the bed he’s just exited. He dresses slowly, giving her every opportunity to admire his lithe physique.

“So what now?” she asks, salaciously eyeing him from head to toe and back again.

He leans over her, presses a lingering kiss to her cheek. “Send emissaries to the other united realms. Inquire on their appetite for rebellion.” He gently takes possession of her lips in a searing kiss that leaves her breathless when they part.

“And I will be your queen?”

“Oh yes, my sweet,” he whispers against her lips, one hand cupping her cheek and the other trailing provocatively down to cup her breast. “The Queen of all the United Realms.”

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Liked it? Hated it? Leave a review and let me know. This is still un-beta'd so if I've gotten anything canon-wise terribly wrong, please let me know and I'll do my best to correct it.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Killian rests his cheek against Emma’s flat belly as they lay in bed, fully clothed, simply taking comfort from one another as an emotionally exhausted Hope naps in the nursery. She cards her fingers through his hair and massages his scalp in the way that he likes, her efforts to relax him working as always.

He tugs up her shirt and presses a gentle kiss to her soft skin, not for the first time marveling at this beautiful woman he’ll be forever grateful to be able to call wife.

“Never a dull moment, huh?” Emma asks from above him, as he relaxes further into her ministrations.

He simply mumbles against her skin, content to lay there with her until Hope wakes. Not particularly interested in talking, though he knows they are going to have to address the new arrivals sometime soon. He’s not even had time to process that his brother has been sent back to the realm of the living, much less Milah – and Neal.

When her next words come out in a soft, vulnerable breath, his heart thuds sharply in his chest. Because, of course, she’s caught onto his silent musings. A testament to how well they know and can read each other.

“I understand if you still love her.”

His eyes widen at the insecurity he can sense her desperately try to hide. “Not at all, love.” He slides back up her body, determined to convince her with deeds if his words aren’t enough. “If I’ve given you that impression-“

She silences him with a finger to his lips. “You haven’t, I just- you missed seeing her in the Underworld. She’s the only reason I was able to get to you. And - you did spend 200 years trying to avenge her death.”

“Even if we had seen one another again in that infernal place,” he begins, gaze firm and unyielding. “It would simply have been an opportunity to say goodbye.” He leans over and nuzzles her cheek with his nose. “Our time came to an end long ago.”

She’s silent for a long, minute before whispering, “Ok.”

He rolls onto his back and pulls her with him, sensing for some reason she’s not convinced and wants to reassure her. “You and Little P are the most important women in my life, love. How can I convince-”

She suddenly leans up and kisses him with such passion that he can do nothing but hold on and let her have her way. After a breathless moment, she leans back and sheepishly glances at him from beneath her lashes.

“Feel better, love?” He wiggles his eyebrows which elicit a familiar roll of her beautiful expressive eyes.

“I love you,” Emma says softly and buries her nose in his neck.

“And I you, Emma. More than I can ever adequately express.” He embraces her tightly and buries his nose in her hair, still fragrant with the salty sea air. Had it only been a few hours since they returned from their anniversary sail?

They lay in contented silence for a few minutes and he can feel that familiar tension in her body that indicates she wants to ask a question.

“What is it, love?” he asks gently, twirling a lock of golden hair around his finger.

“Why didn’t you ask about Neal?” Her voice is soft and hesitant.

He regards her steadily for a long moment before sliding a finger under her chin and pulling her gaze to his. With his heart in his eyes, he says with a certainty that would leave no doubt in her mind. “You’re my wife. I love you. I trust you. And it’s ok if you love him, too.” Just as he would always harbor some form of love for Milah, he wasn’t in love with her. He imagines Emma feels the same – though he’s certain it’s not something he’d really relish hearing.

She’s struck speechlessly silent and in an attempt to add a bit of levity, he quips with a lopsided smirk, “But please don’t ask me to share you.”

Her huff of laughter is an immediate relief from the heavy atmosphere that has settled around them and when she half covers his body with her own and kisses him long and hard, he has no doubt that they will weather this new challenge the Gods have seen fit to throw their way.

“I’m blaming hormones for my stupid insecurity,” she murmurs against his mouth and he doesn’t have the chance to respond before she tugs his bottom lip between gentle teeth and sucks lightly.

Desire bursts hotly across his skin and he knows she can feel it, too, as she rubs her jean-covered thighs deliciously against his rapidly swelling erection.

When her nimble fingers reach his belt, the baby monitor on the dresser filters their baby girl’s newly awakened indecipherable chatter. With identical frustrated groans, they pull reluctantly apart

“Sorry, mister,” Emma tosses a bemused smile over her shoulder as she rolls off the bed. “Lost your chance.”

***

David leads Liam into Granny’s and makes his way over to the tables that have been shoved together to fit their large group; Snow, with toddler Neal on her lap, Regina, adult Neal and Milah. And there’s no way that isn’t going to be weird for the rest of his life.

His eyes narrow when he notices a few people still missing but Snow answers the question before he can voice it.

“Emma just called. Hope needed a nap but she just woke up and they’re on their way.” Snow hands over Neal who settles on his lap and happily munches on the plate of French fries Snow sets in front of him.

David nods in understanding. “She had a bit of an emotional day.”

“I’m afraid I’m partly to blame for that,” Liam says as he takes a seat at the table, “Please accept my apologies. I overreacted.”

“Well, at least there’s no need to speculate if another one of your brood has magic,” Regina says bluntly.

“Were we speculating?” Snow asks and David smothers a smile behind his young son’s head.

“You weren’t?” Regina asks pointedly.

“I figured Emma or Killian would tell us if she showed any signs. Neal hasn’t,” Snow said with a shrug.

“And that’s not at all weird,” Adult Neal nods toward the boy happily munching around a fistful of fries.

“Hope not having magic would have been more surprising,” Regina rolls her eyes. “Second generation product of true love? That kid’s got to have magic swimming in her very cells.”

“True love?” Liam asks with wide eyes. He clearly knows the lore and David notices that Neal and Milah both wear identical, though they attempt to suppress them, surprised expressions.

Snow chimes in before he has a chance to respond and it’s just as well. She can deliver the stupidly romantic answer to Emma and Kilian’s previous lovers in a way he couldn’t.

“Well, David and I have broken a few curses with True Love’s kiss.” Snow’s bright eyes make his heart swell with overwhelming love for his wife. “Emma and Killian passed that test in the Underworld.”

The silence stretches longer than is comfortable and David turns to Liam. “You were pretty good with that drunk back there. Might want to consider a career in law enforcement. Or maybe Killian could give you a job at the pub.”

He answers the question poised on the tip of Snow’s tongue with an unconcerned wave. “A couple of drunks on the street outside The Mermaid’s Cove. We took care of them.”

“I used to be a Naval Captain. I suppose law enforcement isn’t too much of a stretch,” Liam says with a contemplative look. “The girl who checked us into this realm said to come back tomorrow to talk about job placement.”

“The intake process for new arrivals has worked well,” Regina says with an air of earned pride. It had been her idea, after all.

“This happens often?” Milah asks, curious.

“With the United Realms, more people arrive every day to be processed into the community,” Snow answers with a small smile. The town had never been particularly overfilled with people but now it was positively bursting at times.

“You get a phone for your case worker to reach you, clothes, temporary address, food and clothing tokens to start your new life and then we find you a job based on your skill set or willingness to learn a new trade.”

All of a sudden there is a commotion in the doorway as a line of Dwarves hurries in, wide-eyed and excited.

“So it’s true!” Grumpy says as they file around the table and stare at Neal. “You’re back!”

David chuckles as Regina, with a look of supreme annoyance on her face, excuses herself with a crisp, “I need a drink.”

***

Regina shoots a huff over her shoulder as the dwarves pelt Neal with question after question he can’t answer. When Granny shoves a shot of amber liquid her way, she takes it with a grateful salute and downs it in one gulp.

“Ugh,” she doesn’t quite suppress the shiver of disgust at the taste and steadily meets Granny’s eyes when the older woman glares at her, insulted.

“You want the good stuff, you gotta wait until the pirate’s place opens.” She slides another shot across the counter and Regina deftly slows it with a wave of her finger.

“Now what’s a ravishing woman like you doing in a place like this?”

Regina’s eyes slowly shift to regards Ares, sitting two seats over, with instant suspicion. “You’re new.”

He slides one seat closer, licks his lips in what she can only describe as anticipation. “However did you guess?”

She leans forward conspiratorially but notices the temperamental owner has moved to the kitchen and left the front of house service to her staff. “You insulted Granny’s.”

He regards her carefully, dark gaze focused intently on her alone. “I humbly apologize to the lady,” and she has the distinct feeling he’s doing no such thing. But she’s drawn to him in a way she can’t explain. Her magic tingles beneath her skin as she scrutinizes his flirty demeanor and smoothly handsome face.

She holds out her hand,” Regina Mills.”

“Yes, the Evil Queen.”

Her eyes flash. It’s not a name she’s used to hearing much anymore. Though, as more people settle in town, she’s heard it more often as of late. He doesn’t shy away from the power he must know she possesses. Simply leans into her space with bemused eyes and a deviously attractive smile.

“Bane.” He takes her hand and presses a gentle kiss there, his eyes never leaving hers. “You must allow me to procure you your beverage of choice this evening.”

Regina smothers her surprise at his boldness. “I’m busy tonight.”

“Tomorrow, then.”

She cocks her head, surprisingly enjoying this yet another unexpected turn of events in a day filled with them. “And if I’m busy tomorrow.”

He leans forward, breath hot against her cheek. “Then I will simply ask until you agree. Best to give in sooner rather than later, yes? I assure you won’t regret it.”

***

Killian pulls open the door and holds it open, a happily chittering Hope in his arms. Emma slips by him, Hope’s ever-growing bag of necessities slung over her shoulder. Their group is hard to miss, surrounded as it is by excitable dwarves.

Hope stirs in his arms and he protectively tightens his grip on his emotionally sensitive little girl. He’s grateful when David catches his eye and demands immediate silence. He and Emma wait behind the crowd as David asks that they give everyone some space to figure out what’s going on. The dwarves slowly file away from the table to slide into nearby booths or take seats at the bar. All within eavesdropping distance.

Liam is on his feet in an instant, an embarrassed smile as Killian has never before seen spread across his older brother’s face. His heart thumps sharply in his chest. A strained conversation in the middle of Grannys is not exactly on his list of top goals of the day.

“I’m sorry, Killian. I overreacted. Can you forgive me?”

Killian carefully schools his surprise. He glances briefly at David who gives him a sharp nod before directing his attention back to his apologetic brother. He tilts his head as if considering and then glances down at Hope. “What do you think, Little P?”

Hope presses her cheek further into his chest and regards Liam with soulful eyes.

He lets Liam stew uncomfortably for a few long seconds and then embraces him tightly. “Of course, brother. But upset my little princess again and there’ll be hell to pay.”

Killian settles into the empty chair across from David and beside Liam and offers his father-in-law a grateful nod. “Thanks, Mate.”

“What the hell was all of that?” Emma asks with a glance at the now empty space the dwarves once occupied.

“A million and one questions,” Neal answers with groan. “None of which we could answer.”

Regina rejoins them and settles into the empty seat beside Emma, who sniffs out the alcohol immediately. Before Emma can ask, Regina justifies the noon indulgence, “You saw the hoard. I needed a shot or three. Or the excitable little men were going to start losing limbs.”

Emma smothers a grin as the conversation turns toward the new arrivals and what it could possibly mean.

“I hope your arrival doesn’t mean something big and bad is coming right behind you. It’s been so peaceful.” Snow offers and every head swivels to stare aghast at her.

“That’s my kind of skeptical,” Regina quips with an amused chuckle, “Who are you and what have you done with the real Snow?”

Killian would have chuckled at Snow’s perplexed splutter if Hope hadn’t chosen that moment to reach a grabby hand out to Liam.

“Well, first things first, we need to find Henry,” Emma says as Killian surrenders a now straining Hope to Liam’s eager arms.

His heart somersaults in his chest when she turns hopeful eyes to him. “Have another message in a bottle or know where we can get one?”

He shakes his head with sigh, hating to disappoint his wife. “Alas, no on both counts. I’d procured that bit of magic,” he glances briefly at Milah, “long ago and never needed to use it.”

He recognizes the moment Milah works out that it was the message in a bottle that he’d given her on her first raid without him. The magic had cost him a fair amount of their last haul but it had been worth it to ensure she could call for his aid should it be needed. He’s rather proud that it’s now in her grandson’s possession.

“I’ve got my own stash of beans. We can realm hop until we find him,” Regina says sharply and he’s not surprised that she’s taken to growing a few of her own outside of Tiny’s now very tightly secured and controlled garden. Even a reformed villain’s selfish streak was strong. And he’s man enough to admit he struggles with it still.

“We’ve tried that before, Regina. Didn’t work.”

He knows Emma is remembering the time she so desperately missed her son that she went chasing after him with a stash of beans in her pocket.

Regina scowls and he understands the frustrated feeling. He’d had to cope with Emma’s depression for months. Until they realized why she’d been so extra emotional.

She’d been realm hopping while pregnant.

Their fight over him forcing her to stop, because no one stops Emma Swan when she has her mind set on something, had been magnificently spectacular and filled with hurtful accusations on both sides. But it was the hill he was prepared to die on and she quickly came around to his way of thinking, unwilling to sacrifice the safety of one child for another.

Regina stands abruptly. “Well, I’d best get working on a tracking spell that works across realms as well as time.”

“Time?” Neal asks, brows knit together in confusion.

“We think he’s landed in a realm where time moves differently,” Regina explains as patiently as she cares to and Killian fleetingly wonders just how she’s dealing with the arrival of a new parent she’ll now need to share with Henry.

“That sounds complicated.” Neal admits.

“But not impossible,” Regina confirms and waves her had across the table at the meal. “I’ve got this.” She walks away to pay the bill and Killian’s attention is pulled to Liam with Hope sitting calmly in his arms.

Emma stands suddenly and comes to his side, lifts Hope out of Liam’s arms. “Why don’t you take Liam down to the Jolly. Talk. Bond. You know. Reacquaint. While I - go help Regina.”

Killian’s eyes narrow ever so slightly. She’s lying but not in a malicious way. He’s prevented from responding by Liam’s playful scowl. “You renamed my ship, little brother. Let’s see what else you’ve done to her.”

“Younger,” Killian corrects with a huff of annoyance. Liam’s continued use of that word still a long-standing point of contention between them. Albeit one without a hint of anger.

Emma leans in and gives him a quick kiss that he possessively deepens for a moment before gently dropping a kiss to Hope’s upturned nose. “Be good, Little P.”

As he walks out with Liam, he glances back and catches a wordless exchange between his wife and Neal that has the hair on his arms stand on end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Liked it? Hated it? Leave a review and let me know. Still unbeta’d so all mistakes are mine.  
> This was the first chapter I was worried about error-wise as I’ve played with a few elements here from season 7 that I remember from my singular viewing of those episodes. It’s my least favorite season and I just couldn’t re-watch them.  
> If there are any glaring errors, please let me know and I’ll do my best to correct them. I’m a perfectionist and don’t want an incorrect element to throw someone out of their enjoyment of the story.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Despite the centuries that have passed since they’d both stood on the deck of their beloved, enchanted ship, it almost feels as if it were yesterday. Young men, eyes filled with adventure and duty as well as incredible naivety.

“She hasn’t changed a bit.” Liam walks every inch of the deck and Killian’s heart swells with pride at the praise. “Well, except for the name.”

“I couldn’t let it stand, brother,” Killian insists with a voice full of emotion. The memory itself had dulled over the centuries but his fury in the wake of Liam’s unexpected death remained clear and tangible.

Liam turns understanding eyes on him and he’s grateful there doesn’t seem to be another disagreement brewing. “Our King was a coward.”

“I decimated his fleet with this ‘ol girl,” Killian runs a loving hand atop the rail. “She’s always kept us safe. She knew we loved her. She knew she was in good hands.”

“Now that I believe,” Liam clasps him on the shoulder, eyes full of pride. “You are the best navigator with whom I’ve had the pleasure to sail.”

“Damn right I am,” Killian smirks with a confidence he hadn’t always felt in the presence of his more honorable brother.

He can sense Liam wants to say more but instead simply continues to inspect the familiar vessel as if he was a commandant checking on his subordinate. Killian isn’t intimidated in the least, not anymore. The ship has been well cared for and they both know it.

He waits long enough that Liam finally looks up, hesitation in his eyes, and Killian hopes the next words out of his mouth don’t prompt another argument.

“You – didn’t want a profession that kept you on the sea?”

He almost visibly sags in relief that the question isn’t one that would test his temper. It’s not a surprise considering that’s all they knew from boyhood to their parting at Liam’s death. But Killian had found a life landside, though the sea was close at hand for whenever it beckoned him to visit.

“Emma needed a deputy so I helped her for a time,” Killian begins, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips at the memory. “After a while, I needed something more fulfilling. Not much room for piracy on these seas.”

He grins at Liam’s disapproving look.

“As the realms have merged, there are far better candidates to fill the deputy roll. And I still help Emma as needed.”

“Your wife works?” The shocked look on Liam’s face is comical.

Killian huffs a chuckle. “You have a lot to learn about this realm, brother.”

“I guess so,” Liam admits and continues, “So you opened a tavern instead?” There’s no accusation in the tone this time, just an attempt to understand.

“A pub, yes,” Killian confirms and wonders if now is the time he should fill in Liam just why it felt right or if he should save that unfortunate tale and its subsequent heartache for a later date.

As Liam works his way below deck, Killian resolves to let the cards of judgment fall where they may. His unnaturally long life after Liam’s death was full of incredible love, thrilling excitement and all-encompassing rage and there is no point in hiding it. If the news begins another argument, it’s best they have it here, away from prying eyes and ears.

“I found papa after you died.”

Liam stops mid step and turns to Killian, eyes blown wide with shock.

***

With a sleepy Hope in her arms and diaper bag slung over her shoulder, Emma follows Neal and Milah to their shared room.

“When they found out we were related, they figured they could get a two-fer,” Neal says as he unlocks the door and leads them into the little suite she knows well. She and Henry had stayed there years ago when they’d returned from a year in New York.

“So why’d you lie to Killian?” Neal asks abruptly as soon as the door shuts.

A prickle of annoyance colors her response and she can’t find it in herself to regret it. “I didn’t lie to him. I’ll go help Regina later.”

She turns to Milah who doesn’t flinch at the scrutiny and who looks as if she’s anticipating this conversation. Just as Emma expected she would. They’d met in the Underworld, after all. And she knows Killian likes strong-willed women.

With Killian’s daughter clutched tightly to her chest, like a living suit of armor between her and her husband’s former lover, Emma regards her with a curiosity she’d dismissed in the Underworld. But Milah had been dead then. And it annoys Emma now that she should be worried about the woman’s intentions. She trusts Killian but she doesn’t know Milah. Not really.

She feels naked and exposed as Milah unflinchingly returns the appraisal. With astute observational skills that remind her of Killian, she simply sinks into a nearby chair and says, with a certain finality in her voice, “What Killian and I had is long over.”

Emma’s response is disturbingly too quick for her liking though she is glad of the admission. “I know that.”

“But you have a question.”

“Why did you come with us in the Underworld?” Milah said then that she had her reasons but they didn’t seem like a woman pining for a lost love. She’d even been offended when Gold had sarcastically suggested as much.

Milah regards her steadily and Emma notices, out of the corner of her eye, as Neal stands stock still and silent, completely engrossed in their conversation. Their family tree was all kinds of weird. Emma didn’t think she would ever have a more awkward conversation than the one they had in the Underworld. But the woman who her husband had spent two hundred years tying to avenge was now standing in front of her alive and breathing. She imagines there are a lot more uncomfortable conversations to come. But to Emma’s stunning surprise, that day is not today.

“I simply wanted to say goodbye.”

***

Regina has almost reached her vault when she’s intercepted by the mysteriously attractive stranger she’d met in Grannys. But she’s been interrupted enough times today and she whirls, eyes flashing and magic tingling just under her skin. There is no hint of an apology for her reaction. “Are you following me?”

He cocks his head and offers her a slow, charming smile. “Maybe.”

Her eyes narrow but beneath her outward annoyance is a burning curiosity and she’s drawn to the aura of confidence that spills from his every attractive pore. “Where did you say you were from again?”

Ares leans into her space, eyes gleaming. “I didn’t.”

“I have things to do,” she dismisses him and whirls away. She has no time for games.

He catches her wrist and she whirls, eyes glaring down at his hand. He releases her immediately. “Yes. How about that drink?”

“I recall telling you I was busy tonight,” she snaps, the air around her sizzling with magic.

He glances with disbelief around the cemetery. “In a garden full of skeletons?”

“Persistent, aren’t you?”

“When a beautiful woman says she’ll have a drink with me, it’s not something I take lightly.”

His eyes are infectious and Regina finds herself more interested than she expected to be.

“Perhaps I can help with your task and then we can have our drink?”

“How about we get that drink and then I’ll handle my errand on my own,” she finds herself agreeing, both to be rid of him to learn more about this frustratingly attractive man.

“Deal.” He tucks her hand into the crook of his elbow and leads her out of the cemetery with a self-satisfied smile.

***

With a poof of white magic, Henry’s storybook appears in Emma’s raised hand.

“It’s easier to flip through it.” Emma sets the book on the little end table she’s pulled between them.

“I’ve seen most of this,” Neal says as he flips through a few familiar pages.

Emma corrects him immediately. “You’ll find it’s changed since you last saw it,”

Off his disbelieving look she adds, “We’ve been through a lot.”

He glances at a sleeping Hope and Emma’s skin tingles with alarm.

“Speaking of – Where are papa and Belle?”

“They moved to another Realm.” While Rumple had never really endeared himself to any of them, Belle was well-loved and missed and she knows Killian missed their conversations. “Belle has kept in touch enough to let us know they’ve settled down but intend to travel again soon.”

Neal’s brow wrinkles with confusion. “His shop is still here.”

“And he’s sealed it up so tight no on can get into it, too,” Emma confirms with an annoyed huff. Just about everything in that place belonged to someone else and she’d love to be able to return the property to its rightful owners.

“I don’t imagine he’d be happy to see me again so I’m just fine with him being,” Milah says as she leans forward and examines the book.

“You’re probably not wrong,” Emma says with a contemplative thought. “Though, if he and Killian can set aside their differences-”

“Really?” Neal’s surprise is evident.

“Well,” Emma reconsiders. “They stopped trying to kill each other. So I suppose that’s progress.”

They look at the storybook pages in silence for a few minutes until Milah stops at the one Emma knows well; the beginning of her inclusion in the book other than as a baby; her dance with Killian at King Midas’ ball.

Neal leans forward, eyebrows scrunched in confusion. “I don’t remember that one.”

Emma stands suddenly and starts to shove Hope’s items into the diaper bag. “Why don’t you guys keep it for the night. I need to go make sure Killian hasn’t killed that self-righteous asshole of a brother.”

“One Jones is more than enough for you, huh?” Neal smirks but she knows it’s just an act. He’s more uncomfortable than he’s letting on and she just doesn’t want to deal with it right now.

“I didn’t expect Liam to be so judgmental,” Milah agrees as she reminisces. “Killian held him on such a high pedestal. A bastion of virtue he couldn’t ever hope to achieve. His unexpected death caused him to turn to piracy.”

“He told me,” Emma confirms with a sad smile. “We met in the Underworld and – he – well, it didn’t go well.”

Milah and Neal watch her expectantly and she forces herself to continue. “He thought I wasn’t good enough for Killian.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Neal snaps, eyes steely.

“Well, then he would have positively despised me,” Milah chuckles and the women share a warm, understanding look.

“Well, hopefully, they’ve hashed out this newest issue,” Emma quickly continues, not wanting to dwell on Neal’s odd look at her sudden camaraderie with his mother.

“Killian and I spoke about his brother often. But,” Milah continues with a shrug, “the pain was new and raw back then.”

“Yeah. Pain and heartbreak made when we’re young and impressionable tend to linger.” Emma finishes stuffing Hope’s bag and swings it over her shoulder. She cradles Hope against her chest and Neal stands.

“I’ll walk you out.”

“It’s fine. Thanks,” Emma says, not wanting to encourage any attachment Neal may feel, however misplaced. “Have a good night.”

“Em,” Neal follows her to the door and she turns, not really wanting to have this conversation. In fact, they’d already had it. When he’d appeared to her in a vision as she journeyed to the Underworld. To save the man who would end up being her True Love.

“I’m happy for you. She’s beautiful.” He arches his head at Hope. “I’m glad you moved on.”

The jealousy she’d initially seen in his eyes was all but gone. Replaced by a sad resignation. She offers him a reassuring smile and verbally confirms something he probably doesn’t want, but needs, to hear. “I’m happier than I ever thought possible.”

“You deserve it,” is his only response and she notices that the smile doesn’t reach his eyes.

“I won’t ever regret what happened between us, Neal.” She risks a glance at Milah, who is simply watching with kind, sympathetic eyes. “Just as Killian remembers your time together fondly.” She returns her attention to Neal, who still looks like a kicked puppy. “Our past experiences are what made us the people we are today. Henry came of us being together and that is something that I will never regret.”

That admission earns a smile, which does reach his eyes. “Yeah.”

As she turns to open the door, he stops her. “If I hadn’t died-”

She squeezes her eyes shut for a moment before she turns back to him to lay this question to rest once and for all. “It wouldn’t have ended any other way.”

He simply nods as if expecting the same answer.

“You wouldn’t have met me for lunch that day.”

She offers him a sad smile. “No.”

She’d made her choice before he’d died. It didn’t matter if she’d ended up with Killian or someone else or no one.

It wouldn’t have been Neal Cassidy.

***

The first thing Emma hears whens she arrives on the Jolly is the clash of swordplay. Her heart immediately plummets into her shoes and her fingers flex with burgeoning magic as she frantically searches for her husband and his brother.

But laughter immediately follows the noise and she suddenly sees them dueling down the steps, expertly navigating down from the helm of the ship.

“You’re good, Liam, but you know I’m better,” Killian jabs and swings and parries like the talented swordsman he is. “Admit it.”

Emma watches with a healthy dose of appreciation, and more than a little rising desire, as her husband displays his prowess with a blade.

“You have two hundred years on me, brother,” Liam bats the steel away but Killian parries so fast Liam misses the repost and is disarmed in an instant. His cutlass hits the deck with a loud clang.

“And that’s five.” Killian proudly straightens and offers his hand to help Liam to his feet.

“Well at least you two aren’t killing each other,” Emma shouts with a relieved grin as she walks onto the deck.

Her heart does somersaults when Killian’s eyes meet hers and that smile she loves so much spreads across his handsome face. He hurries over and gives her a quick but thorough kiss before turning his attention to the blinking babe in her arms. “Hello, Little P. Were you good for your mum?”

‘Yup. Now it’s your turn,” Emma knows she shouldn’t be surprised when he eagerly lifts his little girl.

He settles her into his arms, carefully avoiding his hook, and bestows another gentle kiss to her little nose while Liam gathers the swords and stows them.

“It’s getting late and I wanted to get her back into her routine since we were gone last night.”

“And-“ he prompts with that stupidly annoying eyebrow.

She rolls her eyes at how easily he’s able to see through her motivations. Always being an open book to him was more than a little annoying. “And I wanted to make sure you two hadn’t killed each other.”

He throws her a mischievous look and glances back at Liam. “Not to worry, love. I’ve left him with only a bruised ego.”

“I demand a rematch,” Liam proclaims with a smile for the gurgling Hope in Killian’s arms.

“Happy to put you in your rightful place again anytime, brother.” The challenge in Killian’s eyes is unmistakable.

“Later,” Liam clasps Killian on the shoulder, eyes warm. “Get your family home. I will see you tomorrow.”

Emma knows this has the makings of being an uncomfortable, if only temporary, parting. And she wants to save her husband from any more emotional upheaval so she steps in with a gentle hand on Killian’s shoulder.

“Why don’t you come back to the house with us. We have an extra bedroom you can use.”

Killian’s brilliant, grateful smile sends her heart somersaulting in her chest. He immediately clasps Liam on the shoulder. “Yes! What do you say, brother?”

It takes a stunned Liam a moment to respond. “Are you certain?”

Emma finds herself being pulled into Killian’s arms and tilts her cheek to accept his gentle kiss. “Take us home, love.”

***

Regina laughs darkly at the sarcasm dripping from Bane’s voice as he points out the faults of each person in the room, drunk or no. He’s astute for having just arrived in this land and she’s impressed. She leans closer and the smooth tone of his voice as he whispers another blunt observation for her ears only is more of a turn on than she wants to admit.

But she really does need to get working on that tracking spell. Henry deserves to know his father has returned from the dead as soon as possible. Not that she’s excited about balancing another parent in the mix. But once she’s done, she’ll happily enjoy another evening out with this mysterious strange man.

She upends her second glass of wine and stands. “As an enjoyable evening as this has been, I really need to be going.”

He pretends to be disappointed but she can see right through the act. “I have clearly done a bad job of entertaining a sophisticated woman such as yourself if you’re eager to leave my presence so soon.”

She leans closer, her breath hot on his cheek. “I had previous plans. Which I told you about. Twice. But you insisted on pursuing me anyway.“ She stands straight and meets his eyes. “You can take me out tomorrow.”

With that, she turns on her heel and walks away without looking back.

***

Later that evening, as they lay in bed, Emma rests her head on Killian’s bare chest, lost in thought. She knows she needs to tell him about her conversation with Neal and Milah but isn’t certain how to broach the subject since she’d told him that she was going to help Regina.

But as always, he senses that something is bothering her and rubs his blunted arm soothingly down her back.

“What is it, love?”

“I went and spoke Neal and Milah after you left with Liam today.”

She can feel the hitch in his breath so she folds her hands atop his chest and props her chin atop them. As expected, unasked questions swirl in his intoxicating blue eyes. Uncharacteristically, he doesn’t wait for her to elaborate.

“And how did that go?”

“Neal grudgingly accepts that we were never destined to be together. Milah is perfectly happy for you.”

That irritatingly sexy eyebrow rises high onto his forehead. “Really?”

“You’re surprised?”

“I really should talk to her. Them,” he corrects with a slight wince.

They lapse into silence for a moment before she continues. “She helped me get to you in the Underworld because she wanted the chance to say goodbye.”

“Aye,” he says quietly, a wry smile on his lips. “We didn’t get a chance-” he trails off and she knows the memory of Milah’s death will be forever imprinted on his heart. He swallows thickly and finishes, “The Crocodile killed her quickly.”

She shuffles up to kiss him lightly. “I know. You told me.”

He shakes his head to clear it and rolls them so that she’s tucked protectively beneath his very solid body. “Sorry, love. The memories are not pleasant, even after all this time.” He nuzzles her cheek and presses a gentle kiss to her neck.

She knows the feeling. Watching him die multiple times over the years, and one time at her own hand, are not memories she has any desire to relive.

When she cards her fingers into his hair and tugs gently at the sea-kissed strands, his low murmur of approval reverberates hotly through her skin.

Tendrils of desire arc like lightning beneath her skin as his mouth fastens wetly to that spot on her neck that never fails to make her toes curl. With white hot need, she shoves his pants to his ankles quickly discards her tank top.

His low chuckle reverberates through her skin as his mouth closes around a pert nipple and gives it a small tug. It’s her turn to gasp as his rough tongue hardens it further before moving to its twin. Her nails curl into his shoulders as his mouth works at her sensitive flesh and his fingers remove the last barrier of her underwear between them.

She gasps when he reaches down and lifts her thigh high on his hip and she wants to tell him she doesn’t need foreplay tonight. She just needs him. Inside her. Immediately. But as usual, he can read her like the open book that she is and simply reaches down to position himself at the perfect angle.

With a small shift of her hips, he sinks fully into her wet heat and they both moan at the delicious friction.

She urges a fast pace, not wanting slow and languid tonight. Instead, she wants it hard and fast and he gives it to her without question. He lifts his head from her nipple she pulls him up with desperate fingers sliding from his shoulders to tug sharply at his hair.

Dark, devouring eyes meet hers and she gasps as he picks up the already frantic pace, chasing an inevitable end that she can already feel building deep beneath her skin. He suddenly yanks her hips upward and slides his arms under her shoulders, changing their position just enough so that every thrust hits his favorite hooded treasure.

She keens loudly as his thrusts drive them toward a quick, satisfying end and magic ripples beneath her skin as she rides out the blinding release. His sharp grunt is followed by a burst of heat inside her and she holds him tightly as his stuttering hips slow.

“You’re a bloody marvel, love,” he pants against her neck, body still trembling with his release.

She smiles sleepily and murmurs, “I love you, too.”

The chill as he rolls to her side is momentary until he hauls her into his arms and gives her a deep, languid kiss. Too tired to do anything but curl into his warmth, she tightens her hold on him when he moves to get up.

“S’okay. Can clean up later,” she says and he flashes a toothy grin.

“My seed has already taken root, love.” His hand slides over her flat belly as his maimed wrist rubs gently up and down her spine.

“Don’t care. I like it.” She pointedly rubs her thighs together and tweaks his nearest nipple.

“Bloody hell, Emma. That’s-”

She lifts her head, licks her lips, and gives him a devilish wink. “I know.”

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Liked it. Hated it? Find anything that didn't make sense? Leave a review and let me know.
> 
> Much thanks to IrishBlueSkies for beta reading for me!


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Emma lowers her hand as she waits outside the closed door and heaves a deep, nervous breath steeling herself for a conversation she’s not certain she should be having. At least, not behind her husband’s back. But she was doing this for him. He’d understand. Eventually.

After a moment, the door swings open and the surprise on Neal’s face is mirrored by Milah’s.

He steps aside and she walks in, exuding more confidence than she feels.

Neal scrutinizes her, eyes narrowing. “You’re missing something-”

“Hope needed some daddy time today,” Emma says with a strained smile.

“So to what do we owe the pleasure?” Milah asks with a curious look that matches her son’s.

“Regina is having a dinner party tonight and we’d like you both to come.”

“That’s very kind of you,” Milah says with grateful smile.

Neal cocks his head and scrutinizes her. “And?”

“I’m hoping you’ll do something for me,” Emma begins haltingly, unsure how he’ll react to her request. Especially if it’s something to benefit a former rival.

“Anything, you know that,” comes his immediate answer and she bites back a wince. She hopes he’s not encouraged by her visit first thing in the morning, without her daughter or husband.

“Would you be willing to ask your father to open his shop?”

The confused look on his face would have been comical if not for her very serious question.

“You know where he is?”

She pulls out a little bag full of magic beans. “Yes.”

Neal’s eyes widen.

“Are those magic beans?” Milah asks, eyes wide. Despite being killed over one, she’s clearly never seen so many at one time.

“Being Sheriff has its perks.”

“What’s he got that you need?” Neal asks and Emma inwardly groans, hoping that she wouldn’t have to tell him before they left and give him the chance to change his mind.

“Killian’s hand.”

Milah recoils with a look of extreme disgust and Emma doesn’t pity the dark history the woman is about to learn about her former husband.

“He kept it?” Even Neal is surprised.

“Everything in that shop belongs to a resident of Storybrooke.” Emma struggles to keep the defensiveness out of her voice. “I’d like to give it all back to them. He’s moved on with Belle and I’d like to think he would be willing if - the right person asked.”

“He and Killian have hated each other for hundreds of years. You think he’d do it?” Neal asks, skeptical.

“They kind of buried the hatchet before Belle and Rumple left.”

“And not in Killian’s back?” Milah asks, surprised.

“It was a close more times than I want to count,” Emma admits with a shudder. “You know Killian. Took advantage of every opportunity to taunt a man who could snap his neck with the wave of a scaly finger.”

“Yeah, he seems – different,” Neal says with a grin . “Not quite as darkly murderous.”

“He’s definitely not the pirate I fell in love with,” Milah says bluntly, glancing at Neal. They’d apparently had a long chat about what had broken up their little family because Neal doesn’t even react.

But Emma is a bit insulted on her husband’s behalf. “He’s dangerous enough when he needs to be.”

“You’ve been good for him.” Milah hurries to elaborate and Emma is oddly curious as she reminisces. “You’ve turned him into the man he was meant to be. Even I could see it when we were together. He turned to piracy not just to exact vengeance but to take control over a life that had always been ruled by others. But he was also a man who loved deeply and fiercely and lived by a very strict code of conduct.”

The hair on the back of Emma’s neck stands on end as Milah speaks, concerned that the older woman’s feelings are stronger than she’s previously admitted.

But Milah notices and raises a hand. “I don’t want him back.” She glances between Neal and Emma as if to reassure them both. “What attracted me to Killian in the first place was that he was a dangerously lethal pirate who took no prisoners and suffered no fools. Anyone can see he’s not that man anymore.”

Emma is taken aback and reacts quickly to correct Milah’s impression of her former lover. “You’ve been here for two days. He’s still all of those things when he needs to be. He’s just given up the 200 year old quest for revenge.”

Milah smiles kindly and Emma can’t help feeling like there’s more she means to say. She isn’t disappointed.

“I mean no insult. I’m not sure how to explain. Back then it was the two of us against the world. Accountable to no one but ourselves.”

“You never wanted to come back for me,” Neal says, tone carefully unemotional.

Emma had heard this story before from Killian and she waits with intense curiosity for the older woman to answer. She trusts Killian’s recounting of the past and wonders if Milah will lie to keep Neal from hating her all over again.

Milah has the presence of mind to look ashamed. “That’s why I was in the Underworld. Paying the price for the choices I made in life. I had a lot of time to reflect on those decisions.”

“So that’s a no,” Neal answers and Emma can hear the hurt tone in his voice.

“I, God help me, didn’t.” The admission pains Milah and Emma’s gaze flits between mother and son as the revelations continue. “I enjoyed the freedom to do as I wanted with the man that I loved. I had his complete attention. We were a good team.” She smiles at Neal, imploring him to believe her next statement. “But he did want to go back for you. He asked every year. And I shot him down telling him it wasn’t time.” She meets Emma’s eyes. “He would have raised Bae if I’d asked. I just – at that time, I wanted to be his one and only.”

Emma actually feels sorry for Neal as he nods in resignation. It doesn’t seem much of a surprise to him and she wonders again if the two had already had this discussion. She supposes she’ll never know.

“I’m sorry, Bae,” Milah’s eyes are wide with apology.

“I get it,” Neal says slowly. “I don’t have to like it but I get it. Papa chose power over me, too.” He turns to Emma. “I’ll go with you.”

***

That evening, as everyone sits around Regina’s dinner table and food and drink have been liberally consumed, Emma squeezes Killian’s hand and stands, ready to make the announcement they’d meant to yesterday but had been derailed by the unexpected arrivals.

She lifts her wine glass, as yet untouched for the evening, and raises it. “To friends new and old.”

The chorus that responds warms her heart and she quiets everyone again. “Killian and I meant to tell everyone when we got back but, “ she smiles at Liam, Milah and Neal, “we were a little distracted.”

“Just tell everyone already, before Snow has an aneurysm.” Regina’s quip draws laughs from around the table.

After exchanging an affectionate smile with Killian, she looks around the table with a hard-won confidence brought about by the unending love of her family and husband, announces, “I’m pregnant.”

Snow squeals with delight. Emma braces herself as her mother hurries around the table and pulls her into a tight hug and then moves on to the unsuspecting Killian, who returns the gesture with the patience of a man who had endured this reaction once before.

“I knew it!” Snow exclaims proudly. “You haven’t had a single sip from that glass all night.”

David hugs his daughter and clasps Killian on the shoulder before shaking his hand. “I clearly need to work on my observational skills.”

A surprised Liam even proudly clasps his younger brother on the shoulder.

“Yeah you do,” Regina confirms with her customary sarcasm. “It’s obvious to anyone with eyes.”

Once over the surprise announcement, Neal and Milah express their congratulations as well.

Just as Emma settles back into her seat, David busts the happy bubble.

“Well just because I didn’t notice you weren’t drinking your wine, at least I heard the rumblings around town about an uprising of some kind.”

“What?” Regina’s voice raises several octaves as she whirls on David. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I’m telling you now.”

“Well that’s just ridiculous. I’m the mayor and should be informed of something as serious as a coup being planned behind my back!”

“That unfortunate fellow we intercepted the other night did speak of insurrection,” Liam confirms with a nod in David’s direction.

“I’ve got my feelers out. I wouldn’t worry about it right now,” David says, unconcerned with Regina’s annoyance, and turns his attention to Liam, Neal and MIlah. “More pressing question should be why Zeus sent the three of you back.”

“I don’t imagine he does such things lightly,” Snow says. “He sent Killian back for helping us defeat Hades.”

“Aye, that he did,” Killian confirms and it’s the first time Emma’s heard that admission in a long time. It brings back gut-wrenching memories and she squeezes his hand under the table.

“That defeat started a chain reaction that enabled Arthur to free the souls trapped in the River,” Milah reveals with a grateful nod.

“Perhaps the Underworld is truly the broken kingdom he was meant to rule,” Killian wonders, eyes blurring with that far away look Emma knows well; an unwilling descent into the past to relive painful memories.

Liam suddenly pulls a chain from around his neck and holds up the silver-encased gem out to Killian.

Killian’s eyes widen with recognition. “Is that-”

“Yes. I - I kept a small piece of the Eye of the Storm.” Liam has the grace to look sheepish. “So I would never forget the fortune it brought us.”

“The stone that earned us immediate commissions in the King’s Navy,” Killian explains to the table.

“If you would permit me,” Liam offers the chain to Emma, “I would be honored if you would allow me to present this unique gem to your little princess. It’s one of a kind, just like my little niece.”

She exchanges a surprised look with Killian but eventually takes the chain from Liam. “Thank you. We’ll give it to her when she’s older.”

“I’ve heard of that stone,” Milah scrutinizes the gem. “It was rumored to power an ancient sword capable of killing a God. It had been tossed into the River of Lost Souls. It called to me every time I swam near it but I didn’t know why. When Arthur freed us, I brought it up and gave it to him.”

“Oh that’s just what we need, another special sword,” Regina quips with a roll of her eyes. “We didn’t do so well with the last one.”

A wince goes through the group and Emma, not wanting to dwell on the memory, quickly explains the damage and death that Excalibur had brought on all of them.

“I’ll do some research on this God killer sword in the morning,” Regina says and everyone’s eyes swivel toward her. “Hey, always a good idea to have something like that handy.”

Emma groans. “Don’t jinx us, Regina. We’ve had a peaceful last few years.”

***

The next morning, Emma and Regina in her vault, Regina on the final stages of her transportation spell and Emma researching the God-killer sword. Research was a task she’s missed over the years as the emergencies needing magical solutions have waned.

Emma suddenly breaks the silence with, “If I tell you something do you promise not to tell anyone?”

Regina’s head swivels up slowly and her eyes narrow. “Only if you assure me this secret is not going to do any harm to my town or its people.”

Emma is momentarily offended. “Of course not.”

“Then yes. I will keep your secret.

“I’m rethinking it, now.”

“Fine.” Regina goes back to her work.

“I asked Neal to get his father to come back and open his shop,” she blurts out.

Regina’s eyes narrow. “Why?”

“Well, no one can get in and all the contents belong to Storybrooke residents and-”

Regina scrutinizes her. “What does he have that you could possibly want?”

“Killian’s hand.”

Before Regina can send a nasty quip her way, she continues, “He’s worried about having two babies and one hand. I want to do this for him.”

“And Neal agreed?”

“He wants to see his dad.”

“And you haven’t told your husband.” It’s not a question.

“I want it to be surprise.”

“Isn’t the new baby a good enough surprise?”

“Regina,” she sighs. She doesn’t want to argue. She just wants someone to confide in and she knows her mother can’t keep a secret to save her life.

“Well, keep recently resurrected mommy dearest out of sight.” Regina flips the page of the tome she’s been researching. “I imagine he’d rethink his quest to rid himself of his darkness if he finds the hated ex is back in the realm of the living.”

“Yeah, I thought about that. Neal won’t say anything and she’s staying inside today.”

“You’re going today?”

“Killian is occupied with Liam and is going to be at the pub tonight. No better time.”

“Speaking of – didn’t they move to a realm where time moves differently?” Regina pointedly glances at her flat belly.

“Well, yeah but-“

“Neal should go alone.”

“Regina,” Emma protests.

“Oh, you told me your little secret in hopes I would just hop on board with the stupid plan?”

“Well – yeah.”

“Captain Guyliner is perfectly capable of taking care of two babies with one hand.”

“You don’t think I should do this.” She doesn’t want to be talked out of this and is annoyed the conversation has taken this turn.

“Has anything I’ve said so far indicated that I agree?”

With a sigh of defeat, Emma goes back to her book.

After a few minutes, she flips the page and pauses at the colorfully painted image of an elegantly feminine sword with rays of light bursting from a blue gem set into the cross-guard. “I found it.”

Regina moves to her side and she reads. “The blade of the Gods will be wielded by the most powerful of light magic users and will herald in the longest lasting peace the realms have ever seen.” Regina flips the page and scrutinizes the text. “I can’t translate the rest. The something something product of True Love. Sounds like you, all right.”

“And it’s in the Underworld,” Emma scowls.

Regina cocks her head, thinking. “Maybe not.”

“What do you mean?”

“There was a copy of Henry’s book down there.”

Emma’s eyes widen. “So maybe it works both ways.”

“Slightly more important than just retrieving a hand.”

Emma snaps a picture with her cell phone and stands. “I’m going now.”

***

An intense love swells in her heart as Milah takes in the pristine deck she’d spent the best years of her life on. She drags her hand along the wooden rail and swears she can feel the hum of the enchanted wood welcoming her home. Killian always insisted that he could feel the old girl’s acceptance even when he issued the most grievous and dangerous of orders.

There is no one above deck but she can hear voices below so she steps aboard and makes her way below with the ease of someone who spent a long time memorizing every ancient plank.

A baby’s gurgle echoes through the narrow space and she knows, even without searching that it’s coming from the one place she’d spent most of her time when aboard; the Captain’s cabin. For a moment, she thinks back to the days when she called the place home. The nights spent satisfying Killian’s every need. Sated whispers as he asked about her boy. They’d never spoken about having children of their own. A pirate ship wasn’t the pace for a baby and, truthfully, she selfishly wanted to keep her irresistibly, insatiable pirate to herself.

And hearing the little familiar noise now, she knows her decision was the right one. She creeps closer toward the open door and peers in to see Killian gently rocking the baby in his arms. Then she steps on a loose plank and the resulting crack draws his attention to where she waits at the door.

“Morning,” she says quickly, pushing the door open, “Hope you don’t mind.”

“Not at all,” Killian smiles in that welcoming way that momentarily hurts her heart to know it no longer belongs to her.

Her eyes scan the familiar room and notes that not much has changed except for the copious amounts of baby items sprinkled throughout. “Still a creature of habit, I see.”

“You’ll not believe I just said the exact same thing,” Liam grins, eyes dancing at his brother’s expense.

“Not much room to re-decorate on a pirate ship, brother.” Killian cradles the baby closer to his chest and smiles at her. “The deck is much the same as you’d remember it.”

“I noticed.” Her eyes twinkle and out of the corner of her eye she notices Liam glance uncomfortably between them.

“Before you ask,” she turns to Liam, eager to dispel any growing suspicion. “I have no designs on Killian.”

Killian’s head jerks back in that achingly familiar way and she continues without allowing him to interrupt.

“Despite what you may have thought you wanted when we were together, there was always something more buried deep beneath the surface of that dark and dangerous façade you projected.” She smiles warmly at the man she had loved so fiercely.

Killian’s eyes narrow and the response poised on the tip of his tongue waits as she continues.

“The crew and I were your family but I know you wanted one of your own. To pass on that part of yourself that you thought died with your brother.”

She does step closer to him now, can feel the curious heat radiating off him. “I wanted the ruthless pirate. The vicious man who took me to the most beautiful cities in the realms and lavished me with all the attention a woman could possibly want.”

She brushes her fingers across Hope’s soft pale cheek. Knows with certainty, now that she can see him holding his own child, this is what he’d really longed for all along, even if he didn’t realize it. And, for the woman who’d been chained to a loveless marriage, it was a life altering decision she didn’t want once she’d had a taste of freedom.

She meets his eyes. “You wanted this. A family. You just needed the chance to become that man you were really destined to become.” Her voice drops as if speaking only to him. “I will always love you, Killian. You saved me. You gave me a life that I wanted and made me feel cherished.”

She could sense both men were uncomfortable and hurried to finish. “That love is a treasured memory but one that I promise you, lives firmly in the past where it belongs.”

The truthy weight of those words settle heavy throughout the room but she can tell they reassure the man she once loved as well.

Liam suddenly takes a fussy baby out of Killian’s arms with a smooth, “Let me,” and moves to the bassinet in the corner.

The heavy bit of their conversation over, she leans forward with a playful wink, “Though the hook is dangerously attractive.”

That sexy eyebrow raises high over his brilliant eyes as she is rewarded with a saucy, amused smirk. “Emma thinks so, too.”

***

Neal and Emma, clad now in attire befitting a visit to a realm where its inhabitants look like they walked right out of the Renaissance Faire, make their way silently toward the simple home built on the edge of a forested cliff side.

In her haste to just get there already, Emma trips over a tree branch and Neal catches her before she can hit the ground.

She ignores his concerned look. “You shouldn’t have come. What if-”

Annoyance bristles but she holds her tongue. “Let’s just get there.”

When they reach the simple home, they see a happy Belle working in the lush garden, humming a tune she doesn’t recognize. She pulls vegetables and carefully packs them into wooden crates. Other already packed crates sit stacked at the end of the cobbled walkway.

“Belle!” Emma calls and the young woman glances up at her, eyes widening in surprise.

“Emma?” She glances with shock from Emma to Neal. “Neal?”

He offers her a sloppy grin and accepts her eager hug.

Her eyes are blown wide. “What? How? I-“

“Is papa here?”

“He’s out but I can call him back,” she hurries into the house and they follow. Watch her pull a pendant out of a chipped cup sitting atop the fireplace mantle.

Emma looks around the home, at the packed crates and bags. “Are you moving?”

Belle smiles, wisdom reflected in her kind eyes. “I’ve been working on some very difficult translations and I finally had a breakthrough. Now that Gideon has started at the academy, we thought it was a good time.”

Emma’s heart races knowing that time in this realm moves differently but she’s surprised to hear that Gideon has left for extended schooling already. That means he’s a grown man when only five years have passed in Storybrooke since the battle with the Black Fairy. Panic sets in over the little three month old bean she’s carrying. If she doesn’t get home soon, the next time she sees Killian she’ll be ready to burst.

Bell lifts the pendant and speaks into it. “Rumple, please come home. We have visitors.”

No sooner has she replaced the pendant in the cup than the puff of magical fog dissipates to reveal a concerned Gold, arms raised and ready for a fight.

“Belle, what-“ he trails off when his eyes fall on Neal. “Bae?” The hopeful crack in his voice tugs at Emma’s heart.

“Hi papa.”

Gold stares skeptically at Neal, torn between desperately wanting to believe and Emma has brought a cruel trick to his doorstep.

“I’m real, papa.”

Emma nods with confirmation and Gold surges forward to pull his elder son into the tightest of hugs.

Belle’s watery smile is contagious and Emma finds herself blinking away a few gathering drops of her own.

“How is this possible? How-”

“That’s a pretty unsolved puzzle at this point, actually,” Neal begins, hoping that she won’t have to hear it before going home. She’s starting to wonder if she made a mistake and her hands flatten protectively over her stomach. Thankfully, Neal knows the need for urgency and wastes no time in asking this favor of his father.

“One that I can stay and tell once Emma gets home safely.”

All eyes turn to her and she straightens her shoulders rather than wilts under their appraisal.

“Yes,” Gold drolls, reading her instantly – as usual. “You linger too long and you’ll be delivering the little pirate on our floor.”

“You’re pregnant?!” Belle exclaims with an innocent excitement that Emma has missed.

“Yeah,” Emma confirms, noticing the disgusted wrinkle of Gold’s nose.

“And you want something.” Gold’s disappointingly deadpan observation sends chills down her spine. “Or you wouldn’t have risked this trip – and without your pirate lapdog.”

Emma resists the urge to snap back. She needs something from him, after all.

“I need you to open your shop, papa,” Neal says and she exhales a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding.

“Of course you do.”

“Please, papa,” Neal’s plea is genuine and Emma can tell it works the moment it left his lips.

“And what is it that she’s asked you to procure?” Gold asks his son but his eyes are focused solely on Emma.

Again, Neal answers before she has to and she’s immensely grateful. Killian and Gold hadn’t parted as friends but they had stopped trying to kill one another. Though, she doubted that the Dark One would venture back to Storybrooke to do something nice for the man.

“The items belong to the residents and we’d like to return them,” Neal says simply, tone unyielding.

Gold’s slow, piercing gaze is hard to shake as he redirects his question to Emma. “But you’re looking for one specific item.” He shifts his weight from one foot to another, waiting. “Out with it or my answer is no.”

“Papa-”

Gold raises his hand and Neal falls silent.

“I want Killian’s hand back,” Emma says with a stern, unyielding tone.

“And there it is,” Gold mutters with a self-satisfied smile. His eyes swivel to Neal. “It’s a good thing you’ll be staying with us for a few days so we can hear all about your return.”

“Figure it’ll be a bit longer than a few days.” Neal is completely unfazed by his father’s brazen demand.

Gold turns to Belle, “Looks like we’ll have some guests for dinner.”

“I can’t,” Emma says, careful to keep the panic from her eyes. “I need to get back.”

Gold dismisses her with a wave of his hand. “No one is stopping you.”

Neal steps in and Emma is thankful he knows the sense of urgency. “You go back with Emma and I’ll stay here.”

Gold inches closer to Neal. “All of this to help the pirate get his hand back?”

“Rumple.” The admonition in Belle’s voice doesn’t silence Gold for long.

“He stole my wife. I’ll never forgive the man.”

“It’s not theft if she went willingly,” Emma jabs back this time. She’s well aware of the type of man Killian used to be but she also knows he would not have taken a woman against her will. It had been confirmed by the woman in question herself – something Gold could never know.

Gold’s retort is fiery mix of long held anger and denial. “Don’t be so naïve as to believe everything that pirate tells you.”

“Papa-“ Neal starts but is waved silent by Gold.

“Fine. Let’s get this over with.” Gold relents and turns to Neal. “I will revise the wards to allow you and you alone unimpeded entrance.”

He turns to Belle and gives her a gentle kiss. “Bae and I will be back before dinner.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Liked it? Hated it? Leave a review and let me know.
> 
> Thank you to IrishBlueSkies for looking the chapter over for me!


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9:**

Emma shifts restlessly as Gold quickly dismantles the magical wards that prevent entry into his shop. With a prick of Neal’s finger, The Dark One reapplies the magic surrounding the place, now tinged with his very specific blood.

He opens the door and steps in, no gentlemanly instincts present to let her precede him. With a quick wave of his hand, the layers of dust that cover every inch of the place vanish.

Emma and Neal follow him to the back room and watch with carefully schooled expressions as he deftly opens a hidden safe and procures a glass jar containing Killian’s hand. Emma’s heart thuds sharply and she takes it with a measured, “Thank you.”

“You kept his hand in a safe?” Neal asks with narrowed eyes and a look on his face bordering on disgusted.

“Just keeping it safe.” Gold’s slimy response makes her skin crawl. “With your penchant for snooping through my possessions-” He leaves the accusation hanging because they all know Emma would have taken it without asking if she’d known where it was.

He rests his hands atop the counter and regards them with a steady, dispassionate gaze. “Now, what else do you want?”

Emma bristles and exchanges a look with Neal.

“Might a well tell him,” Neal shrugs.

“Yes,” Gold deadpans, “Might as well.”

“A sword,” Emma says plainly, hoping he won’t ask what one and why.

“Haven’t you had enough of magical blades? The last one killed you and the one prior to that felled your pirate.”

Neal whirls on her, eyes wide.

She waves away his concern. “Later.”

They follow Gold back to the front room where he pulls out a card catalogue and pushes it toward her. “Belle has catalogued much in the shop, even made it to the items stored in the basement during our – separation.”

While Neal flips through the cards, Emma pulls out her cell phone and shows him the photo she took in Regina’s vault. Then turns to Gold, eyes wide with curiosity. “This place has a basement?”

“You’ve visited my vault.”

“In the Enchanted Forest. You mean you brought the whole thing here?”

“Regina’s curse did.”

“Your curse. She just cast it.”

He dismisses the conversation with a wave of his hand. “Semantics.”

Neal pulls out a card with a black and white image of a sword, the cross-guard empty but looking like it once contained a jeweled inlay.

Gold scrutinizes the card. “That would be in the basement.” He taps his fingers on the photo attached to the card. “The God-killer is useless. As you can see, it’s not complete.”

“It’s meant to be the Savior’s weapon.”

“You do appear to be the greatest practitioner of light magic,” Gold confirms but carefully scrutinizes her as if she’s woefully unaware of the particular use of this magical weapon.

She unflinchingly returns his scrutiny. “You thought it could take away your darkness so you kept it buried in your vault.”

“Did you miss the part where I said it has no power?”

“You kept it in case you found the missing piece. You didn’t want anyone to be able to use it on you.”

“How perceptive.” Gold sneers and she revels in the small victory. “Why do you want it?”

“I told you, it’s meant to be the Savior’s weapon. You would know that. You were born a Savior, too.”

Neal glances between them, shocked. “What?”

Emma says only. “You’ve been gone a long time.”

“Not _that_ long.”

“It’s my story to tell,” Gold interrupts sharply. “And I will tell it when we get back to Belle.” He stares at Emma. “Now, if that is all?”

“Yeah, thanks.”

He raises his hand and the sword suddenly appears in a puff of crimson smoke. He offers it to Emma. “Further research revealed that the God-killer could not give me what I seek.”

Emma takes it with a grateful nod. “Thank you.”

“If we’re done here?”

“Yeah.”

Gold turns to Neal. “Belle is a most excellent cook.”

She hands the small bag of magic beans to Neal with a heartfelt, “Thank you.”

“Send for me when Henry gets back,” Neal asks with a small smile and she nods.

***

Emma lies back on the medical table, a concerned Snow at her side. Hope naps in her bassinet, Emma having picked her up so Killian could head over early to the pub with Liam. She feels guilty being here without her husband but she wants to make sure her visit to a realm where time moved much faster didn’t do any lasting damage to her unborn baby.

She knows her efforts to dodge her mother’s questions have come to an end when she’s pinned in place with a knowing look. “Emma what’s going on?”

She keeps her tone light and tries to divert one more time. “I just want to check on the baby.”

But Snow sees right through it. “Something you would normally do with your husband.“

Emma hesitates and Snow scrutinizes her closely.

“I may be further along than he realizes.” She absently rubs her hands over the little bump that wasn’t there when she woke up this morning.

“And that means…?” Snow asks slowly.

The explanation comes out in a barely distinguishable string of words. “That I took Neal to visit Gold and it may have sped the pregnancy a bit.”

“What?” Snow makes no effort to hide her shock.

“Killian doesn’t know and-”

“Emma, you can’t keep secrets.” The admonishment cuts deep. She and Killian had hurt one another deeply in the past due to secret-keeping. And they’d moved past that. Well – until now.

“I did it for him.” The justification even feels hollow in her ears.

“He won’t see it that way.”

“Gold gave me back his hand.”

Snow’s mouth snaps shut.

“I was wrong not to tell him but he’ll come around when I reattach it.” She admits, certain that there won’t be anything wrong with the baby except a bit of accelerated growth. It seemed to happen to every baby in this town anyway. But she knows she’s going to have to brace for his justifiable anger and likely a very big argument.

Just then the technician comes in. “Ready Emma?”

Emma nods as the technician squirts gel onto her skin and moves the baton over her belly. The woman works clinically, doesn’t ask why her husband hasn’t accompanied her and Emma is grateful.

“Well, it looks like you’re at about seventeen weeks,” the technician finally says with a smile. “Would you like to know the gender?”

“If you can tell this early, then it’s a girl,” Emma says automatically.

***

Regina sits at the bar as Liam and Killian work easily behind it serving a bustling crowd. She has to admit, the place has been respectable since it opened and they, unlike the Rabbit Hole, haven’t needed a bouncer to toss out the drunk and disorderly.

The Captain’s reputation is enough to keep patron’s behavior, with exception of a random drunk or two, considerably more orderly than the only other bar in town.

And with the merging of various Realms into Storybrooke, it’s definitely a welcome addition to the formerly sleepy town’s lackluster social scene.

When Hook disappears into the back, she carefully watches his brother easily handle the demanding crowd. He refills her drink and she moves to a corner table rather than continue to be jostled about by the growing crowd and their demand for the Captain’s popular brew.

Amidst the loud, rambunctious gossip she catches snippets of conversation regarding weak leadership. She cranes her neck to identify the recruiter but her attention is diverted when Ares slides into a seat beside her and offers her a smoldering smile.

“Fancy meeting you here, Madame Mayor.”

She shushes him with a wave of her hand and continues to eavesdrop on the nearby conversation. Her attempt to surreptitiously identify the men is foiled by the constant stream of more and more people into the pub.

Before long, the group, wearing no identifiable clothing, leaves and she quickly slides out of her seat to follow.

Ares quickly catches up with her as she hangs back, watching the group of intoxicated men, and eager to follow them back to their headquarters.

They suddenly disappear behind a building at the end of the street and when she rounds the corner, the men are gone.

“Dammit,” Regina curses. She scans the area, frustration evident on her face. “They couldn’t have just disappeared.”

“I am happy to lend my assistance in locating these brutes, My Lady.” Ares executes a flawless bow, which makes her itch to know more about him. His history, from what land he hails. He had some kind of regal upbringing though his demeanor is refreshingly irreverent.

Regina stalks around in a circle before leveling narrowed eyes at him. “There’s magic at work here.”

“Well it’s a good thing you possess some, isn’t it?”

With regret, she dismisses him. “I’m sorry. I can’t tonight. I have too much to do.”

She walks away without looking back. If he is as interested in her as he appears, he’ll still be there when her responsibilities aren’t pulling her in so many directions.

But for now, she needs to redouble her efforts to discover who is planning an insurrection in _her_ town.

***

Emma glances around the basement, completely transformed from her time as a Dark One into a functional storage space. She waves her hand and a floor to ceiling shelving unit slides inward to reveal a hidden room.

When Hope had been born, she and Killian had agreed that the room would be useful in case a new villain showed up in town hell bent on destroying The Savior. It wasn’t just enough to erect powerful magical wards around the house. She wanted a place to hide her child, now children, should the need suddenly arise.

Her parents don’t even know about this room and at some point she’ll need to tell them but until then, it remains her and Killian’s secret.

She places the sword in one of the long drawers out of sight and then leaves the room.

Killian will be home soon and she needs to steel herself for the conversation she fully expects will turn into an argument.

But as it turns out, she doesn’t have long to wait as she hears the front door open and close.

She waits until she hears him go up the stairs and then hurries out of the basement to follow him.

She finds him in the nursery, a smile and a kiss for his baby girl even with the lateness of the hour. With overwhelming affection, she leans against the door and watches him fuss over the placement of her little seahorse plushie. He tucks the fluffy blanket adorned with little anchors around her tiny body and whispers goodnight.

The smile that spreads across his face when he sees her grows ten fold and he pulls her into his arms to deposit a very thorough kiss on her lips.

“Mmm, someone’s been drinking on the job,” she chuckles as she pulls the nursery door closed.

“Grumpy wanted me to try a new blend he and the dwarves have concocted.” He tilts his head. “It wasn’t bad. Told him I’d buy a barrel and see how it sells.”

She glances back at the closed door leading to the bedroom Liam is using. “Liam’s not with you?”

“He wanted to walk back.”

She takes his hand leads him to their bedroom and he follows, only pulling his hand from her to unfasten the ridiculous amount of buttons on his shirt and vest.

“Waiting up for me, love?” he stalks closer, removing bits of clothing as he goes.

With incredible difficulty, she flattens her hands on his chest just as he’s about to remove the unfastened vest and shirt.

The desire fades from his eyes and she can see the moment he senses something is off.

“What is it?” He glances back at their closed bedroom door, brows furrowed and she knows his thoughts immediately.

“Hope is fine.”

She takes his hand and hook and pulls him close. Despite having hours to figure out how to broach the subject, she’s still finding it difficult to start.

His eyes search hers until he straightens and asks with a hesitant, “What have you done?”

“Killian...”

“I know that look, Emma. What’s going on?”

“I have a gift for you and I don’t want you to be angry.”

“At a gift?” The confusion on his face gives way to shock when she holds out her hand and in a puff of magical smoke the glass jar containing his severed hand appears in it.

His voice drops a few octaves and it would have been incredibly sexy if his eyes hadn’t narrowed with suspicion at the same time. “What have you done?”

“Now don’t get mad.”

“Halfway there already, love.”

She throws caution to the wind and just tells him, steeling herself for his vehement response. “Neal and I went to ask Gold to open his shop.”

He’s silent for long moment but she can see him working out which part of her revelation he’s going to be angry with first. As expected, he zeroes in on the most important.

His response is low and deliberate, his accent more pronounced with the controlled fury. “You went to another realm where time works differently – while _pregnant_?”

“The baby’s fine.”

“And Bae _let_ you?”

Her hackles rise at that insinuation and she spits out a retort she instantly regrets. “Hey mister, no one _lets_ me do anything!”

“That’s our baby, Emma!”

“But she’s fine!”

He stops short and blinks owlishly at this new bit of information.

“She?”

Emma bites the inside of her cheek and forges onward amidst the additional wrath she knows is to come when he finds out she went to the doctor without him. “Mom and I went today to make she the baby was fine and they-”

A chill bursts through the room that has nothing to do with magic. He’s silent again and she just knows he’s working out the timeline. He was with her every step of the way with Hope.

“You shouldn’t know that yet – unless-” He trails off and waits for her to admit what she’s done.

“I’m seventeen weeks pregnant.”

“How far along were you on our anniversary?”

“I don’t know.”

“Guess,” he seethes, jaw set and eyes hard.

“Killian, I-“

“Told me about Hope at twelve.”

“The baby is fine, Killian.” She sets the glass jar on the dresser and pulls out the sonogram. “See? Look at her. She’s fine.”

“You risked her life to get me my _hand_ back?” Anger wars with disbelief in his voice.

“There was no risk to her life.” She’s relatively sure anyway.

“You don’t know that.”

“Killian-” She hates it when they argue and this has the makings of one to rival their screaming match after she’d disobeyed his wishes and tethered him to Excalibur.

“And you groveled to The Crocodile?” Cool, unyielding fury drips from his lips.

“No. Neal asked him.”

“Oh, don’t think I’ve forgotten that you involved Baelfire in this little plan.” He’s hurt. She can see it in his eyes. She went to a former lover, the father of her firstborn, instead of her husband with a plan she knew he wouldn’t approve.

Maybe his stance would soften if she revealed, “He wanted to help you.”

“He’s not my biggest fan, Swan.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“I’m sure he jumped at the chance to go on a little adventure with you,” he grits through clenched teeth, eyes a swirling storm of furious anger.

Of course he would go there. She should have known. He’d expressed undisguised jealousy in the past. “There’s nothing to be jealous about, Killian.”

“He still loves you.”

“And Milah still loves you. But that doesn’t mean they want us back.”

She worms her way into his space and wraps her arms around his neck, slips her fingers into his hair. He stiffens but doesn’t immediately pull away so she considers that progress. “And even if they did, it’s not happening.”

The blunt honesty of her words soothes his rage and he relaxes as her fingers tug at his hair in that way that he likes.

She pulls him closer, encourages him to flatten his hand across her belly. “Our baby is fine, Killian and I want to give you your hand back. We found the sword, too. I’ll ask Regina to fuse it with the stone tomorrow.”

“Well, you’re just full of surprises tonight.”

“Please don’t be mad.”

“I am mad, Emma.” He doesn’t pull out of her arms but the tenseness in his shoulders and the tick of his jaw is a clear indication he’s trying to work out just how angry with her he needs to be. It’s justified. Mostly.

“I’m sorry, Killian. You have every right to be angry. But I knew she’d be ok. Forgive me?” she begs, one hand dropping from his neck to grasp his and squeeze.

He heaves a heavy sigh and allows her to pull his hand to her belly. “She’s truly ok?”

She grabs his hand and flattens it against her belly. “Promise.”

He tugs her into his arms and holds her close. Buries his face in her neck. “Don’t do this again, Emma.”

She cups his cheek in her hands and kisses him, slowly, gently. Pours all her love for him into the intimate gesture. “I won’t.”

He glances skeptically at the glass jar. “Did he curse it?”

“Don’t even put that in the air.”

She slowly pulls off his vest, shirt and spends a great amount of time carefully removing the buckles that fasten the brace to his arm. The scars and indents in his skin are deep but she smiles when the brace comes off to reveal the swan tattoo at the edge of his blunted wrist.

She gently brushes her fingers over the delicate ink. “This never bothered me. I want you to know that.”

“I do know, love.”

“But you were concerned you couldn’t handle two babies even when I know you can do anything. And when Neal arrived out of the blue, I knew he’d want to see his father so I thought maybe if he asked, Gold would give it back.” She knows she’s saying too much, too quickly but she’s desperate to make him understand.

He swallows deeply and she knows he’s remembering the deal he had to make to get his hand back the last time. But there is no deal this time.

“And he did. No deal. No stipulations.”

She presses a lingering kiss to the tattooed swan. “Ready?”

He steels himself and gives her a quick nod.

She relaxes and focuses all of her magic on her incredible love for her husband. Magic was emotion, Regina taught her long ago and she gives herself over to its power. Her eyes slip closed and she feels the magic flow freely through every pore as his re-attached hand suddenly appears in her minds eye.

After a brief moment, her fingers slide down his left wrist to lace through his – for the first time since their date.

He flexes their joined fingers and gives her a toothy smile.

She steadies herself against his chest when he pulls her into his arms and kisses her with an untamed hunger that makes her insides quiver. The moment is cut short when Hope’s sudden wails filter through the baby monitor.

They hurry out of the bedroom and into the nursery to find the little girl red faced and wailing in her crib. The tail of her little seahorse plushie clutched in her tiny fisted hand.

Emma marvels as her doting father immediately lifts her into his arms and cradles her against his bare chest.

Hope quiets almost instantly and Emma finds herself blinking back tears as Killian holds his daughter for the first time with two hands.

***

Ares stands outside the vault and scans the deserted cemetery to be sure there are no interruptions. Seeing no one, he raises his hands and sends a burst of magic toward the structure. The magic is rebuffed and he absorbs it with a burst of maniacal laughter.

“You are a fascinating and delectably devious woman, Regina Mills.” Regret clouds his eyes for a brief moment. “It’s too bad you will have to die.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully, those who are still reading are enjoying the story. 
> 
> Thanks to IrishBlueSkies for looking over the chapter and making sure it feels right!


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

When Emma and Killian arrive at Regina’s mansion, late as usual thanks to a fussy baby, even Regina is surprised that her quest had been a success.

“Neal really didn’t give Gold a choice,” Emma says with a bright smile.

“Yes, where is the good Samaritan?” Regina asks, though the passive look on her face is a clear indication she doesn’t really care.

“He’s staying with Gold and Belle for a while.”

“Ah, there’s the Dark One’s price.”

Snow pulls his hand closer for inspection and that stupidly sexy eyebrow raises high onto Killian’s forehead in exasperation. While David, who already knew because her mother can’t keep a secret, simply slaps him on the shoulder.

Liam and Killian share a warm hug and though Killian and Milah very pointedly do not, she does offer him a warm, congratulatory smile.

Eventually, Killian tires of the attention and shoots his wife a long-suffering plea. Suddenly, the God-killer sword appears in her hand with a quick burst of white magic.

Everyone forms a circle around her but she tilts the blade so Milah can confirm its identity. “Are you sure this is the same sword you saw?”

Milah’s confirmation isn’t a surprise. “That’s the one. I’ll never forget it. I tried everything to find a way to use it to end my agony in the River.”

Emma pulls out the gem Liam gave her and holds up the blade. Memory of the last time she tried to fuse two blades hits her like a hand clenched around her heart and she exchanges a tentative look with her parents and Killian, who then take a few steps away. “Okay, here goes nothing.”

Emma concentrates and strains but nothing happens.

Snow glances between Regina and Emma. “Maybe if you combine your magic? Regina has light magic now.”

“Not a bad idea,” Emma agrees.

But Regina is hesitant. “My magic isn’t exactly reliably –good.”

“We believe in you,” Snow says with a trusting smile.

Together, Emma and Regina focus their magic on fusing the stone into the blade. After a few long, tense moments, a burst of light expands around the blade and the magic vanishes, revealing the gleaming jewel now melted into the magical metal.

Regina, clearly eager to be done with the whole business, leaves the newly reformed blade in Emma’s hands. “Since it’s supposed to belong to the greatest user of light magic, I’ll leave it with you.” With an amused lilt, she adds, “just don’t go shoving it into a stone.”

Four pairs of eyes snap toward her, the memories of Excalibur still fresh even though years have passed since that dark, painful experience.

Emma carefully ignores Liam and Milah’s confused looks. Now is not the time to tell them that story.

“Oh, sorry,” Regina says, the look on her face not at all filled with such emotion. “Too soon?”

Emma’s breath suddenly hitches as a flutter spreads through her abdomen. She lowers the sword and flattens her hand across the little baby bump.

Just as realization registers on everyone’s faces, she reaches out to Killian. She pulls him closer and flattens his hand across her belly, hoping that he’ll have a chance to feel it, too. “She moved.”

“Is she okay?” His ask is one of concerned elation and she knows they’ll end up having another conversation about her little trip to find Gold.

“She’s fine.” Her eyes meet his and he shifts closer, his hand gentle and warm.

An unintelligible shout at the door disturbs the happy moment and as they all turn toward the front entryway, Grumpy barges in.

“Why aren’t any of you ever in town anymore!” Grumpy grouses, breathing heavily. “We have to chase you down now if we need you.”

Emma cocks her head and regards him with a patient smile. “There are plenty of deputies on duty to handle any problem, Grumpy.”

Regina dismisses him with a manicured eyebrow. “It would be far less strain on your stubby legs to go to the station than come all the way here.”

Grumpy glowers at Regina. “Ha ha.”

Emma’s almost afraid to ask but since he’s come all the way to Regina’s mansion, they owe it to him to hear him out. But first, she needs to know. “What’s wrong with the team on duty at the station, Grumpy?”

The admiring and respectful response as he turns to Emma falls like a lead weight through the room. “They aren’t you.”

It takes Emma a moment to find her voice. “Okay, then so what’s wrong?”

Grumpy spills his information as quickly as his brain can push the words out. “You know we like to keep up on local business, well, the Dwarf chain keeps hearing about someone wanting to start a war to rule the United Realms and we finally found out who! The Queen of Wonderland! We heard she’s assembling an army to challenge you.”

David cocks his head. “Well, now we know who. We just need to know why.”

Grumpy’s mouth falls open and he shoots David an incredulous look. “You already knew?”

Killian looks down his nose at his least favorite dwarf and Emma can sense his giddy elation as he smirks, “The drunk tell many tales.”

Regina’s eyes glint with anger. “Well, let’s go then. We need to put down this little uprising before it starts.”

Emma stops her, “Wait. Henry? Did you-”

Regina dismisses her. “Completed the locator spell and sent the message last night.”

“Why didn’t you say something?” Emma demands, incredulous.

“Everyone was too busy goo gooing over Captain Guyliner’s new, old hand.”

Regina regards David with a stern look just as he opens his mouth to chastise her. “You don’t have a sturdy leg there, Mister.”

His mouth snaps shut. He did, after all, keep the first rumors of insurrection from her.

“You sure it worked?” Emma asks, concerned.

“Yes,” Regina says with confidence that leaves no room for doubt.

“Hey!” Grumpy says impatiently. “We got trouble brewing, people!”

“We’ll handle this,” Regina raises her hand and Emma feels the familiar tug of magic as she, Regina and David vanish from the mansion.

***

Ares stretches his long, sated limbs beneath the bedcovers and glances sidelong at the dozing Queen at his side. His fingers trail down her pale arm and she rolls closer, eyes full of devotion.

“We will be ready to execute your plan soon, my love.”

He placates her with a deep, suggestive kiss. “You have done well.”

“Anything for you, my King.”

When they’re interrupted by a knock at the door, she reluctantly extricates herself from his embrace and answers it with a haughty, annoyed scowl.

The attendant is clearly nervous about the interruption and keeps his eyes submissively on the floor. “Sorry to disturb you, My Queen. Mayor Regina, Prince Charming and his daughter are here to see you.”

“Are they now?” The thrilled look she shoots back over her shoulder excites him. “I’ll be with them once my very important business here has been concluded.”

She slams the door in her attendant’s face and waits as Ares approaches, long, lean body naked and very aroused.

“They’ve likely heard rumors. You’ll need to dispel them.”

She gives him an appraising onceover and licks her lips, heady desire written all over her face. “Later.”

He permits her to push him back toward the bed and wraps his hands around her backside as she straddles his hips. When she sinks down on him with a satisfied moan, he yanks her forward and thrusts his hips sharply, driving himself as deep a possible into her tight heat.

“They can wait until we’re done,” she says with a breathy moan.

***

Emma, Regina and David wait in the throne room, guards standing silent while time passes and they grow more impatient.

“What the hell is taking so long?” Regina scowls as she paces in a small circle.

“Would the Evil Queen have dropped what she was doing if summoned for an audience by people she didn’t particularly like?” Emma asks pointedly, hand resting on the sword at her hip. Now that it was complete, she didn’t like the idea of it being out of her sight.

“Or would you just snap their necks and go on with your day?” David adds with his particular flair for the dramatic.

“Well, I wouldn’t do that now,” Regina clarifies and shoves her hands onto her hips.

They wait in silence for another few minutes until the large doors open and the attendant arrives to announce the arrival of his Queen.

David steps forward with a silencing look at Regina, which she returns with a heavily disapproving purse of her lips. “Thank you for seeing us on such short notice.”

There’s a flush to the young queen’s cheeks as she settles onto her throne. “What can I do for you?”

“As you’ve no doubt heard, there are rumors of insurrection in town.”

“I have heard these rumors.” She dismisses them with a wave of a pale, dainty hand. “I expect they are simply soldiers blowing off steam. This realm has peculiar laws with which my people are not yet accustomed.”

“So there is no organized plan?” David asks bluntly and Emma imagines it was Snow who handled diplomacy in the Enchanted Forest.

“Of course not.” The Wonderland Queen mostly hides the anger at the insinuation and levels steady eyes at Regina and Emma. “You could put such an insurrection down with a flick of your magically inclined wrists.”

“That’s right,” Regina levels an unflinching gaze at the young Queen. “We could.”

“No need to posture, Your Majesty,” The young Queen says sweetly but with an air of disrespect. “My people do not possess magic. Any realm would be foolish to declare war on a kingdom that does.” Her head tilts toward David, his and Snow’s battle with the Evil Queen well known in any realm.

David nods respectfully. “Thank you for your time. Please reprimand any of your people who may be making such plans.”

David gently directs Emma and Regina toward the exit but Regina whirls out of step for a moment to address the Queen, eyes hard and unyielding. “Or I will.”

***

“That was fun.” The Wonderland Queen’s eyes fall on Ares as he emerges from behind a plush brocade curtain.

But he is in no mood to crow about her verbal victory. There is something more pressing that has his dark gaze focused on the door through which the royals had just exited. “We will need to escalate the plan.”

The Queen immediately dismisses her attendants and guards with a curt wave of her hand. “Leave us.”

“Why?”

“That blade The Savior had sheathed at her waist. It can kill me.”

“I thought nothing could kill a God?” she says, aghast.

“The product of True Love for two successive generations can wield the power of the blade and end the life of any God.” He snarls, eyes flashing with anger.

The queen seeks to comfort him but he is not interested. “No such person has ever existed.”

“Are you certain?”

“Well, no, people don’t go around telling others that they’re the product of True Love. It’s a rare magic, even more rare if it is passed down to the next generation.”

“The Savior has a child.”

“Her son Henry doesn’t have magic. Nor does her younger brother.”

“Silly girl, magic such as this is passed down through the female line.” He turns hard, inquisitive eyes on her. “The Savior has a daughter.”

Her response is dismissive and filled with a haughty disgust. “True love with a _pirate_ is unlikely.”

***

Killian sits on the plush couch with Hope cradled in his arms and can’t help but be completely captivated by his little girl’s voracious appetite as she tugs contentedly on her bottle. Liam sits across from him, curious eyes taking in his little niece, an equally delighted look on his face.

“They’ve been gone a long time,” Snow says as she paces restlessly.

“We’d have heard if something went wrong, surely?” Milah asks, settling into a seat across from the two men.

Before any of them can answer, Regina, David and Emma appear in a puff of purple smoke.

“What happened?” Snow asks immediately.

“She’s definitely hiding something,” David confirms.

“Ya think?” Regina snaps.

“She really doesn’t like us,” Emma adds as she sinks onto the couch and brushes her hand over Hope’s wispy dark hair. Killian’s eyes meet hers and she offers him a strained smile.

David wraps an arm around Snow. “I think it’s time to gather the heads of each realm to discuss holding an election.”

“We need to put down whatever uprising that ambitious child is planning first,” Regina says, pacing in a tight circle. “Then you can hold your election.”

“Knowing the people will have the right to select their own ruler might put it down without us having to lift a blade or a bow,” Snow says with an admiring look at David. “David and I can put that together.”

Milah stands. “Please let me know if I can help. I’ve been assigned duties at the school which begin tomorrow so I really must be going.”

Emma takes Hope from Killian as he stands and starts to repack her diaper bag.

“We need to get to the pub,” Killian looks at Liam, who nods.

“Well, I’m going to root out who else is planning to try and kill me,” Regina snaps, eyes hard.

She walks everyone to the door with a promise to contact them should the need arise.

Once alone, Regina raises her hand to poof to her vault but is interrupted by a knock at the door.

She pulls it open to reveal a smiling Ares.

“What are you doing here?” His sudden appearance is both off putting and intriguing.

“I missed you.”

“Persistent, aren’t you?” The annoyance remains but so does the thrill. It has been a long time since she was pursued in this way.

“You have no idea.”

But she can’t shake the nagging feeling that he has another agenda. “Your timing is suspicious.”

“I waited until your brood was gone. I selfishly wanted you all to myself.”

Regina feels a little flutter of want that she really should suppress.

He swaggers into her space, exuding raw, enticing power but she places a firm hand on his chest and pushes him out the door.

“You’re not coming in. We’re going out.”

***

Outside _The Mermaid’s Cove_ pub, Killian unlocks the door with an intricately shaped pirate key and gestures for Emma to precede him.

“I’ll walk you back to Granny’s,” Liam offers his arm to Milah with a kind smile as they wait on the sidewalk.

“I’d like that, thank you, Liam.” Milah takes the proffered arm.

“I’ll be back in time for opening,” Liam calls out to Killian, who raises a questioning eyebrow at his brother while an amused Emma waits just inside the door.

In a bit of a daze, Killian locks the door behind him and follows Emma to the back office.

Emma sets the bassinet on the tidy wooden desk, Hope napping silently inside. “So – that’s new.”

The only answer she gets is a disgruntled harrumph and she turns to find him glancing back out into the empty front room.

“A little defensive there, pirate.”

His eyes snap back to hers. “What?”

“If they’re interested in each other, just let it-”

Killian waves his hand, dismissing the thought. “That isn’t it at all.”

Emma pushes into his arms, pecks him on the cheek. “Then care to explain it? Because you don’t exactly have a say in who they choose to date.”

“She’ll hurt him. And I don’t want to see my brother hurt.”

That isn’t what she expected him to say though she’s not sure what she did expect him to say and waits patiently for him to continue.

“He’s not her type.”

“That’s right.” Her response is tight, and she has no idea why she’s feeling so defensive. “She likes bad boys like you.”

His answer is that all too familiar haughty smirk. One he reserves for her eyes only nowadays and he saunters closer, flattens his hands across her backside and hauls her hips flush with his. “As do you.”

She drops her arms across his shoulders and pushes her fingers into his hair. Tugs the soft, dark strands with one hand and pulls his mouth to hers with the other. The kiss that follows is filled with heat and promise and she feels his body respond instantly.

“Sometimes,” she murmurs against his hot mouth.

His lips drop to her neck and she huffs in a breath as the roughness of his tongue licks the soft skin before his lips close over it and suck a possessive mark there.

Magic tingles through her body as his hands slip with purpose beneath her shirt and the clasps of her bra are no match for his talented fingers, especially now that he has ten of them.

With a sharp tug, she pulls his lips from her neck and he quickly sweeps his tongue into her mouth, devouring her like a starving man.

But just as he snaps open the front of her jeans and shoves his hand into the moist heat between her thighs, Hope gurgles awake. They pull apart as if a bucket of ice water has been dropped over their heads.

Emma rests her head back against the wall and wraps her hands into Killian’s hair as he drops his head to her neck and exhales a long, loud groan.

After a moment to catch their breath, Emma gently pecks his cheek and ducks out of his arms. “It isn’t like we haven’t already christened every surface of this room already.”

“A repeat performance wouldn’t go amiss,” he breathes and shifts uncomfortably.

Emma lifts Hope and settles into the chair, readying herself to feed their little girl. “Let me feed her and I’ll take care of that.” She nods at the very prominent erection straining against his tight pants.

“No time.” The obviously uncomfortable strain in his tone brings an amused smile to Emma’s lips. He drops his forehead to the wall and breathes through the arousal. “Liam will be back soon.”

She settles Hope into position and shrugs out of the already unclasped bra as Killian walks slowly out of the room without so much as a glance back at his two girls.

Emma nuzzles her little girl as she finds a nipple and latches on easily. “Daddy is a bit jealous, sweetie. These used to belong to him and he’d like them back.”

His voice echoes from where she knows the bathroom to be. “I heard that.”

Later, when Hope has been fed and settled, she wanders out of the sound-proofed office to see the pub bustling, Lily delivering pints with a smile, a small band playing energetic sea shanties on the small stage and a smiling Regina sitting with a dark-haired man in the corner.

She tries to catch Killian’s attention but he and Liam are busy working seamlessly behind the well-stocked bar.

Instead, she leans against the wall, the happy scene pulling a content smile to her lips. After a moment, she sends a quiet thanks Zeus. Without him, none of this would have been possible.

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope people are still enjoying. Let me know if so. What do you like? What don't you like? What would you like to see happen? What do you think is going to happen?


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Emma rolls over and snuggles into the warmth of her husband’s back and buries her cold toes beneath his calves. Feeling saucy and deprived since he’d gotten home in the early morning and simply fallen into bed, she slips her fingers around his waist and tugs gently at the closest nipple until it stiffens beneath her fingers.

“Playing with fire, love.” The sleepy, lilted accent sends heat straight to her groin.

She leans up and gently bites his ear before whispering a heated challenge. “Yeah? What are you gonna do about it?”

He has her on her back, hips cradled between her splayed thighs faster than she can take a breath. “Would you like to know?”

Eyes gleam demurely beneath her lashes. “I definitely would.”

She lifts her mouth to accept the kiss that hotly plunders her mouth and steals her breath while one hand slides under her hips and the other into her hair to tug her impossibly closer. Not to be outmaneuvered, she clings to his shoulders with one hand and wraps her fingers around his stiffening erection with the other.

With a few long strokes, he’s gasping into her mouth and she’s arching her hips upward to guide him into her tight heat.

After last night’s interrupted moment, she’s glad he isn’t interested in slow and languid. They’re both worked up and she relishes the long, hard snap of his hips, driving him deep. Magic tingles beneath her skin one hand tilts her hips to just the right angle while the fingers of his newly reattached hand pinch a rigid nipple just hard enough to drive her to a quick, toe-curling orgasm. With a strained grunt exhaled against the soft skin of her neck, her body flutters around him and his hips stutter for a few sharp thrusts before he follows. Chests heaving from exertion, his lips lazily plunder hers as they come down from the mutual high together.

Once settled in one another’s arms, sweat drying on their skin and breath slowing, Killian asks about the sword.

“I hid it in the basement.”

“We don’t have a great amount of luck with swords, love,” he quips with a sleepy, sated smile but there’s an underlying pain beneath the words.

Excalibur. The sword Gideon used to kill her. The cutlass she needed from him when she was the Dark One.

“Maybe we can break the cycle with this one,” she snuggles close and scratches her nails across his chest.

His lips press to her forehead. “I’ve yet to see you fail, love.”

They share a warm smile as they remember the words said in the damp heat of Neverland.

She settles into his arms, sated, for the moment. “Besides, there’s no God in Storybrooke that I need to kill.”

“Except the one you permit into your bed every night.” The dirty leer is punctuated by a playfully confident wink.

She rolls her eyes and huffs a sharp laugh, though she knows he’s not wrong. With a long, languid stretch, she snuggles close and asks if he’d seen the man Regina was sitting with last night.

“Aye. I sent Lily on a bit of an errand.”

Emma’s jaw falls open, an incredulous look on her face.

“Love, I employ the lass. She is not permitted to seduce customers. I don’t run a tavern.”

She’s impressed with her husband’s devious attempt at information gathering. “Did she find anything?”

“Why don’t you simply ask Regina?”

Emma pushes herself up on her elbows and stares down at him. “You’ve met Regina.”

His answering chuckle sends warm tingles skittering across her skin. “Aye, prickly woman in the best of circumstances.”

“Exactly.” She settles against his side again and splays her fingers across his chest.

“I would like to be there when you inquire about her suitor.”

Emma’s wandering fingers pinch his closest nipple and the quick gasp and smoldering look he shoots her from beneath his dark lashes has her instantly ready for round two with her reformed pirate bad boy.

***

Later that morning, Emma, Killian and Regina meet at the farmhouse to discuss the next steps in their plan to have a free and fair election in the newly United Realms.

“We’ve set up a meeting for tomorrow,” David says proudly.

“And _everyone_ agreed to come?” Regina asks, surprised.

“Every one,” Snow confirms with a smile.

During a break in the conversation, Emma bluntly asks about the man she was with in The Cove last night.

Snow pounces immediately, eyes bright and excited. “You have a new man, Regina?”

“Guyliner do some tattling, did he?” Regina’s eyes flare with betrayal. “Not enough excitement in your marriage anymore?”

“No need to be so defensive.” Emma shoots a mildly amused Killian an I-told-you-so look.

“That was rude even for you, Regina,” Snow confirms with an apologetic look toward Emma and Killian.

Killian steps in, hand resting at the small of Emma’s back in silent support. “If you don’t wish to reveal the details of a budding relationship, perhaps your liaisons shouldn’t take place in a public establishment.”

“When I have details I want to share, I’ll let you know.” Regina offers them each a firm glare, a clear indication that discussion of the subject has come to its end.

“So – back to the election,” David says, clearly eager to change the subject.

***

The Wonderland Queen sweeps into her bedchamber and her smile widens when she notices Ares sprawled naked atop the plush covers. His hand moves languidly along his rigid erection and her mouth waters at the sight.

She quickly sheds her clothing and joins him on the bed, straddling his hips. He lazily positions himself as she sinks down and takes his entire length in a single thrust.

“Mmm, Your Majesty. Always wet and ready for me.” He lets her set the fast and hard pace. Cups her full breasts as they bounce with each urgent rise and fall of her hips.

“My army is at your command,” she pants, eyes glazed as his fingers pinch and twist.

“Your destiny as Queen of the United Realms is at hand,” he holds her tightly as she works herself into a quivering mass above him.

“And yours, my King.” The utter devotion in her eyes is unmistakable.

“Oh yes, I will be your King in all things.” He grips her backside and yanks her forward, driving himself deeper inside her tight heat.

She gasps as he rolls her over and sets a fast and merciless pace. His failure to lure the intoxicating Regina into his bed has him taking his frustrations out on the besotted Queen but she doesn’t seem to notice and that suits him just fine. All she can do is cling to him as he quickly uses her to his satisfaction.

Once they come down from the tingling high, she settles exhausted against him and traces the muscles of his chest with a wandering finger.

“What do you know about The Savior?” He slides a hand into her hair and tugs gently, forcing her eyes to meet his.

“Her again?” The young Queen sighs dramatically.

“I want her dead, my lascivious Queen. I don’t want to fuck her.”

“Got her claws into that hot pirate captain and never let go. Went to the Underworld to split her heart and bring him back.”

His eyes widen imperceptibly. “Only those who share True Love would be successful in such a task.”

“Yeah, well, she came back without him so obviously it didn’t work.” Her hands wander south as her lips land on his neck.

He cups her cheeks and she lifts her eyes to his, hands resting on his abdomen.

“Listen to me very carefully or our plans may be thwarted.”

She pushes herself to her elbows and waits, the picture of a perfect debauched devotee.

“You will deliver their child to me.”

***

The next morning, David, Snow and Regina, decked out in their regal best, wait in the throne room of their palace, one of several large structures to have been transported from the Enchanted Forest.

The leaders of every realm are represented save for the Queen of Wonderland. Whispers at her tardiness begin to filter between them.

“She’s not late yet,” Snow says, her voice strained.

“She’s not coming,” Regina snarls.

“Let’s give her the benefit of the doubt,” David says with a voice laced with hope. “She has five minutes.”

“She does tend to have a flare for the dramatic,” Snow shrugs. Regina raises her hand to poof away but Snow stops her. “Let’s give her the chance before we start to accuse her of insurrection.”

“How did she obtain her title again after my mother’s - demise?” Regina asks pointedly.

Snow has the grace to wilt a bit at the reminder. “She brutally murdered all the other claimants to the throne.”

“I rest my case.”

***

Killian hops onto the Jolly Roger and lifts the bassinet to inspect a sleeping Hope.

He slings her diaper bag off from his shoulder and presses a kiss into the sleeping babe’s dark head.

“Mum will join us for lunch, Little P.” He traces a finger down her smooth cheek. Her long, dark eyelashes flutter but she doesn’t wake.

“So it’s just you and me, this morning, aye?” He moves across the deck, feels the low hum and acceptance of the enchanted wood roll with the ripple of the sea. He smiles warmly and runs a loving hand across the rail. “A new generation to sail the seas with you, ‘ol girl.”

***

At Grannys, Liam sits in a booth with a smiling Lily as Granny herself bustles around them like a nosy, busy bee.

***

The school bell rings and Milah directs the children off the playground and into the building.

***

Emma walks into the sheriff’s station and relieves one of the deputies, ignoring the catcalls of the men behind bars.

The other deputy just ignores them as Emma sits down at her desk and bites with relish into a large bear claw.

The clock at the top of the Clocktower chimes loudly.

“What the hell is that?” Emma exchanges a confused look with the other deputy and as she stands to go to the window to take a look, the deputy dives in front of her.

“Emma look out!” The deputy takes a shot to the chest and is dead before he hits the floor.

Emma gapes wide-eyed, the air crackling with magic around her.

***

As the chime from the Clocktower continues to ring, soldiers sitting at Granny’s counter immediately whirl out of their seats and draw hidden weapons from beneath their clothing.

Granny hurries out to reprimand them but one slams a blunt object into the side of her head. She drops instantly.

Liam is on his feet in an instant, Lily by his side, her eyes glowing as her temper flares.

Before she can transform, a dart embeds itself into her neck. She rips it out as Liam turns to slam his fist into the nearest advancing soldier.

She drops hard as the sleeping drug takes hold.

Overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemy soldiers in the restaurant, Liam fights his way out the back. He fumbles with his cell phone and dials as he stays clear of the army growing rapidly at the center of town.

He shakes the phone, hangs up and dials again.

But there’s no dial tone. No connection. And no signal.

***

Loyalists spill out of businesses and join the growing Wonderland army as they march down the street. They kill anyone who attempts to stop them, armed or not.

***

Ares lowers his arms and a haze of red and inky mist settles like a dome over the town. With a twist of his wrist, transformers and cell towers explode.

He turns to the Wonderland Queen, who sits haughtily atop her horse, its tack ornate and representing of a God of Olympus. Her elite guard surround her and he really doesn’t care if they all die. They are a means to an end and he can find another willing lover or three.

“They are all yours, my Queen.” He nods with feigned deference. “Remember, I want that child. Kill anyone who stands in your way.”

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Liked it? Hated it? Have a theory about what's going to happen next? Leave a review and let me know.
> 
> Much thanks to IrishBlueSkies for taking a look and making sure nothing stood out as glaringly wrong.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd apologize for this chapter, but I really don't wanna.

**Chapter 12**

Liam races down the street, a stolen blood-stained sword in his hand. Where possible, he defends scared residents but dodges bloodthirsty soldiers in his singular quest to reach the docks.

***

Emma poofs onto the Jolly Roger, startling Killian from where he stands on the enchanted deck watching over Hope as she tugs hungrily from her bottle.

“Killian!” Emma yells, panic in her eyes. “She’s started a war!”

Killian whirls at her sudden appearance, instinctively cradling Hope tighter. He doesn’t have a chance to speak as Emma hurries to his side.

“Take Hope below. I’ll get as many people here as possible and then I need you to take the ship out.”

Killian immediately refuses, momentarily insulted that she would even think he should run, much less say it. “I’m not running, Emma.”

As Emma opens her mouth to respond, Liam leaps onto the ship, eyes wide. “Killian! Emma!”

“Liam!” Killian moves toward him, eyes wide with concern as they scan his bloody clothing.

“Not my blood.” Liam bends over in an effort to catch his breath. He holds up the phone in his hand. “I tried to reach you. It doesn’t work.”

Emma yanks her phone out of her jacket pocket, dials. Nothing.

“They’ve killed the cell signal so we can’t communicate. I need to warn Regina and my parents.”

“Go. I’ve got this,” Killian reassures, eyes hard.

She swipes the sword from Liam’s hand and marches toward Killian. With a gentle kiss to the top of Hope’s head, she uses the blade to make a small cut across the little girl’s hand.

Before the babe notices the pain associated with the cut, and before her husband has the chance to protest, Emma has healed it.

Killian’s eyes narrow in question. “Emma?”

Magic bright as the sun bursts from her raised hands to encompass the ship and they’re buffeted by the silent spell as the wards slam into place.

Liam gawks at Emma with a mixture of awe and disbelief. “Blood magic.”

“No one can enter except by blood or invitation.” With a quick kiss to Killian’s lips and a soothing kiss to her daughter’s nursing cheek, she steps back. “Protect her.”

Without another word, she disappears in a puff of white smoke.

Killian turns to Liam. “I’ll be right back.”

Killian immediately hurries below deck, his nursing daughter completely engrossed in her bottle.

Once in the Captain’s cabin, Killian plucks the bottle from the babe’s mouth and places her in a small bassinet. Hope’s face scrunches in a prelude to a vicious scream of disapproval. But he swipes up a pacifier and shoves it into her mouth. After a few disgruntled sputters, the babe settles into her plastic meal.

Killian snatches a few sheathed cutlasses out of a hidden compartment but hesitates at the door with an uncertain glance back at his infant child. Torn between leaving her and returning to the deck to defend it at Liam’s side, he trusts that Emma will return and decides to leave the babe safe in her bubble below deck.

When the sound of a very loud motorcycle barreling closer echoes through the cabin, Killian quickly fastens the sword to his waist, shuts the door and makes for the top deck.

He arrives just as Grumpy’s loud and bulky motorcycle sputters down the docks and skids to a halt in front of the ship. A steel-eyed Milah launches off the back.

“Teachers got all the kids to the mines!” With those parting words, Grumpy guides the bike off the docks as flames lick at buildings in the distance.

Milah tries to cross the gangway but is immediately rebuffed at the ship’s rail. She glances wide-eyed at Liam. “What’s-“

Liam moves across the gangway to help Milah to her feet. “Blood magic.”

Killian arrives, eyes filled with apology. He runs his hand lovingly across the rail. “Let her aboard, ol’ girl.”

The magic surrounding the ship ripples as Liam pulls Milah across the gangway. Killian tosses her a cutlass, which she catches with surprising ease and fastens the scabbard to her waist.

“What do you know?” Killian demands, eyes hard and tone demanding an immediate answer.

“They came from everywhere,” Milah says, eyes haunted. “Cut down whoever stood in their way.”

“The soldiers were wearing the colors of Wonderland,” Liam confirms and Killian’s jaw clenches in barely restrained fury.

***

Emma poofs into the middle of the palace, eyes wild, fingers crackling with magic.

Everyone whirls toward her as she yells, “Wonderland soldiers are attacking the town. ”

A ripple of murmurs spread through the assembled heads of state as Emma hurries over to her parents and Regina. “They’ve knocked out the cell towers.”

“No one terrorizes my town but me,” Regina hisses with an I-told-you-so glare directed toward David and Snow. Before Emma can stop her, she vanishes in a billow of purple smoke.

“Regina!” Emma cries but she’s gone.

“Emma, the kids?” Snow’s panic reverberates through the room.

“Hope is with Killian and Liam on the Jolly. I’ll poof you to the school.” Emma flicks her hand at her mother but nothing happens. She tries again. “Something’s wrong.”

“But you just got in and Regina just got out!” Panic spreads across Snow’s face.

Emma marches toward the large double doors and when her hand touches the wood, she’s thrown backwards by an incredible force of magic.

“Emma!” Snow and David surge forward.

But Emma pushes to her feet with a discombobulated shake of her head. The residual magic sends a tingle of pain down her arm. “That was-”

“Magic. Very powerful magic.” David eyes the concerned crowd.

Snow takes her hands, eyes wide with panic. “If you can get out, go! Get your brother. Defend the town! We’ll find a way!”

The representatives from the realms stand as one. Turn to David. “We’re with you.”

“Mom…” Emma hesitates, unwilling to leave her parents trapped in the castle.

Snow’s voice is calm and steady but demanding. “Go. Find Regina. She can’t take you both on.”

Emma throws up a hand and white smoke envelopes her. When it dissipates, she’s gone.

With hard, determined eyes, Snow turns to the assembled leaders of the United Realms, “I bet they didn’t block every exit.”

***

Emma poofs to Regina’s side and is immediately beset upon by Wonderland soldiers swinging very sharp blades.

“Why do I always have to be right?” Regina snaps. A blade gets too close and she twists the neck of the offending soldier.

“Don’t kill them!” Emma flings one away with a wave of her hand. “They’re just doing their Queen’s bidding.”

“Someone comes at me with an intent to do harm and I repay them in kind.” Regina swats another who sails head first into a brick wall.

“Speaking of the Queen, there she is,” Emma points to the woman, in fully armed battle regalia, astride a similarly armored horse.

“Keep the peasants off me. I got this.” Regina heaves her arms forward and a burst of magic flies toward the Wonderland Queen.

With difficulty, Emma keeps the soldiers at a distance, but the sheer number coming at her are difficult to control.

Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Regina’s magic impact the Queen’s chest plate and dissipate across the ornate metal.

“That’s not possible,” Regina hisses and tries again. This time, grimacing with the effort to heave so much magic in the young Queen’s direction.

When that magic also bounces away harmlessly, the Queen’s maniacal laugh echoes down the street. “Silly insignificant witch. I have a God on my side. I cannot lose.”

Regina and Emma exchange horrified looks as Ares appears beside her, in full ornate Olympian armor. He trails his finger down the blade of his sword to pick up a few drops of blood gathered there. It drips from his finger as he shoots them a malevolent glare.

“No,” Regina breathes, and Emma can see the color drain from her cheeks as she looks into the vengeful eyes of the familiar man.

Regina whirls on Emma, snaps the neck of a soldier who gets too close. “Where is it?!”

Emma concentrates and the sword she’d hidden in the basement of her home, the God-killer, appears in her hand.

With a predatory laugh, Ares vanishes in a puff of red and inky black smoke.

“He knows what it is,” Regina says as she swats away a group of soldiers stupid enough to think they can storm her en masse and win.

The Wonderland Queen continues her advance, taunting them as she gets closer. Her men keep coming and the women toss magic at them to keep their distance. “You are not the one destined to wield that blade, Savior!”

“Crap, what does _she_ know about it?” Emma hisses as Regina continues to snap the necks of advancing soldiers. “What did you tell him?”

“Nothing!” Regina would have slung a burst of magic her way for the insinuation of she wasn’t already occupied with the never-ending advance of Wonderland soldiers.

But the Wonderland Queen, stunningly beautiful in her magic-proof armor and with visceral hatred swimming in her opal eyes, answers their unasked questions for them.

“Ares will kill that babe in her bassinet and then there will be no one capable of stopping our rule of these United Realms!”

“Ares?” Regina hisses through clenched teeth.

“The son of Zeus?“ Emma blinks back her shock but then her eyes narrow.

“Because of course he lied to me about his name,” Regina spits and takes her rage out on the closest enemy soldier.

The men all of a sudden step back as their Queen approaches, resplendent in her magic-proof armor.

Regina and Emma stand shoulder-to-shoulder, ready to rebuff the haughty Queen.

Emma clenches the God-killer in white-knuckled fingers as she asks, “What baby?”

The Queen’s demonic laugh sends chills down their spines. “Why yours, of course.”

Emma recoils as if she’s been struck and her eyes fill with panic as they meet Regina’s. “Hope.”

***

Bloodthirsty soldiers stand on the dock, glaring at Killian, Liam and MIlah as the trio wait on the deck of the Jolly Roger, blades raised to defend the enchanted ship.

“Whatsamatter boys? Can’t cross a simple gangway?” Killian taunts, pacing like a caged animal and itching to drive his blade into every single one of them.

“Killian,” Liam starts, concerned eyes flicking between the soldiers and the irate brother pacing impatiently across the deck. “Now might not be the right time to taunt them.”

“Now is the perfect time, brother! They’ll be so angry, they’ll make mistakes. Fatal ones.” Killian’s eyes were hard, murderous, the perfect picture of the vengeful pirate he used to be.

MIlah, cutlass clutched in her hand, awe and admiration plain on her face. “Now this is the Killian I remember.”

Liam glances between the two and, surprisingly, tries to diffuse a bit of his brother’s spectacular eagerness to draw blood.

“My Killian never took lives so eagerly.”

Killian whirls on his brother, eyes burning with a vengeful fire. “Your Killian died when you did, Liam. What I am now is what I became in the wake of the death of the people I loved most in this world.” He stalks rigidly in front of the soldiers that keep trying, and failing, to breech the magical wards surrounding his ship. “And I will rip apart those who think they can take anyone else from me.”

The deck lurches suddenly and Killian, Liam and Milah are thrown off their feet to the cheers of the soldiers waiting on the dock.

As they push themselves upright, a burst of inky black and red smoke deposits Ares onto the center of the deck.

Killian’s eyes widen and his lips curl into a furious snarl recognizing that the man had been in his pub with Regina.

“You,” Killian hisses, the single word dripping with venom.

He stifles the immediate thought that Regina had betrayed them. She wouldn’t. She was already the de facto leader of this town. She would never support such insurrection.

“Hello, Captain,” Ares taunts, finger trailing down his blood stained blade.

“How -” Liam starts, confusion on his face.

Killian is more cautious, lifts his blade and stalks around the intruder.

“So easy to obtain a bit of blood from a clueless royal trapped in an inescapable castle.” Ares raises his arms and the magic wards surrounding the ship fall.

“Snow. David,” Killian breathes and fearlessly clutches his cutlass in white-knuckled fingers. “If you’ve harmed them-“

The soldiers waiting on the dock lunge forward but Liam and Milah are there to meet them. The clash of blades reverberate through the ship as Killian continues to stalk Ares.

“Pitiful human, I could end you with a flick of my wrist.” Ares raises his hand to do just that as Emma and Regina suddenly appear in a whirl of purple smoke.

“He wants, Hope!” Emma screams as she sends a burst of magic straight into Ares’ chest. “Killian, where is she?!”

The Olympian stumbles back, quickly-masked surprise at the raw power contained in the light magic.

Shock registers on Killian’s face moments before he races across the deck to get to his daughter below. He expertly fells a few soldiers to get past Liam and Milah and enchanted wood splinters as he barely dodges a literal lightning bolt slung from Ares’ hand.

Regina sends another burst of magic his way, eyes flaring with immense anger. “You used me!”

“Not in the way I wanted to, lovely,” Ares slings another lightning bolt at Killian as he vanishes below deck.

Emma and Regina throw everything they have against Ares. Over his shoulder, more soldiers arrive to reinforce those Liam and Milah have killed.

“I will rule these United Realms and there is nothing you can do to stop me,” Ares crows. The battle clashes around him as he easily faces off against the light magic flung his way.

***

David and Snow, now leading a massive army comprised of the majority of the United Realms rush down main street to engage the Wonderland Queen.

“I still don’t know why he left me alive. He could have killed us easily,” Snow says as she swipes at her bloody cheek.

“He needed something.” David says as their men race to engage the enemy.

The battle rages with Snow and David’s army slowly overwhelming those of the much smaller Wonderland forces.

All of a sudden, a magic portal opens and Neal hops through, straight into the middle of the battle. The smile on his face vanishes as a Wonderland soldier swigs a blade at his head. He ducks and comes up right beside David and Snow.

“What spectacular timing!” David yells as he fells a nearby soldier and kicks the blade toward Neal.

“What the hell is going on?!” Neal hollers as he lifts the blade and shoves it into the nearest red-clad soldier.

“Queen of Wonderland decided she wanted to be in charge.”

“Why didn’t you call me back?! It’s been a month!” Neal parries another swing but just barely. The blade rips through his shirt and draws a thin bloody line across his chest.

Snow gawks at him and drops the soldier who’d inflicted the wound. “A month? You’ve been gone for a few days!”

“You know time works differently there!”

A bloody Granny darts out of her restaurant, crossbow in hand surrounded by a band of eager, bloodthirsty dwarves. “The Queen was boasting about aligning herself with some powerful God. They’re headed for the docks.”

Grumpy fights his way to Snow’s side. “I got Milah to the Jolly. Captain, Liam and Hope were there. Teachers got all the kids to the mines. They’re safe!”

Snow and David exchange horrified looks and let their men precede them to push the battle further down main street.

“Where’s Emma?” Snow asks, concern lighting her already pale features.

“And Regina?” David asks.

“They were here but then poofed away.” Granny lets loose another bolt and an enemy soldier stalking atop a nearby roof flies off. “That nasty Queen said they were after Hope.”

“No,” Snow gasps, panic in her eyes. “We have to get down to the docks, David!”

“And we will,’ he reassures and turns to a nearby General. “I need you to protect the town. I’ll take a battalion down to the docks. Send more once the town is secure.”

***

Emma draws the God-killer to block a particularly nasty bolt of lightning flung from an eager Ares.

A weakened Regina continues to throw magic at him as well as behind her to protect her flank and aid an increasingly overwhelmed Milah and Liam. But her attention is split and Milah goes down hard, blood gushing from a gash across her back. Liam tries to pull her away from the onslaught but is overwhelmed and must leave her unconscious body where it fell.

Soldiers slip past his line of defense and disappear below deck but he’s trapped and can’t follow.

“You can’t have my daughter!” Emma screams, eyes flaring with fury.

Ares cackles with malevolent glee. “I don’t need her for long. You can have the body back once I’ve snuffed out the life.”

“Not gonna happen!” The God-killer absorbs another vicious bolt of lighting but the power of the impact nearly shakes the blade from Emma’s hand.

With her strength waning, she throws another burst of magic toward Ares, which he deflects easily. “Mere mortals have no chance against me.”

“This family never fails!” Snow cries as she leaps into the fray, David and Neal by her side. United Realms soldiers engage with the Wonderland ones, surprise on their side as they fight a battle on two fronts.

Ares flings another lightning bolt at Emma and this time, the blade flies out of her hands as soon as the magic strikes it. The force of the blow flings Emma across the deck. She hits the rail, momentarily dazed.

David, Snow and Neal rush toward her but are pushed back by Wonderland soldiers.

Suddenly, Killian appears at the end of the deck, Hope clutched in his left arm, a bloody cutlass in his right and a murderous look in his eyes.

Neal drives his sword through a nearby soldier and hurries to Emma’s side. He helps her to her feet but she pulls him close. “Do you have any beans left? Get them to Killian. He needs to get Hope out of here!”

Neal pulls out the pouch and tugs it open. Inside, is a singular bean.

Another portal suddenly swirls open on the deck, and a bright-eyed, oblivious Henry steps through. Taller and older, the eighteen year old’s smile vanishes immediately.

“Henry get down!” Emma screams but Ares makes the connection immediately and slings a lightning bolt straight at his chest.

Time slows for everyone and they stare in shock from their battle positions as Emma, Neal and Regina scream, “No!”

The bolt strikes Henry and he collapses instantly. With a flick of his fingers, Ares tosses the body into Neal and Emma and whirls on a similarly shocked Killian.

Neal drops the pouch containing the bean as Henry lands in Emma’s lap. She cradles her motionless son with tears in her eyes.

“Heal him! Emma, you can do it!” Neal climbs to his knees, focusing Emma’s attention from the battle raging around them. “I know you can. Please!”

Emma nods rapidly, closes her eyes and focuses her magic. A steady stream of light sinks into Henry as Neal encourages her.

Regina screams in anguish and flings every bit of magic she can at soldiers advancing on Emma’s position and at Ares to distract him from Killian and Hope. But he swings his ornate shield off his shoulder and it redirects the magical rage back at her with a spectacular, otherworldly glow. She flies backward and slams her head into the side of the ship, unconscious.

Snow and David stalk closer, anguish in their eyes and David tries unsuccessfully to reach Liam. But Killian’s brother drops to the deck, blood flowing from a gash in his leg, another from his shoulder before United Realms soldiers come to his rescue.

The quickly overwhelm what is left of the Wonderland enemy, giving David and Snow a clear path to help their son-in-law.

Killian stalks closer to the pouch with the life-saving bean but Ares catches him and a magical lightning bolt appears in his raised hand. With understanding written in resigned eyes, Killian twists his back to Ares and wraps his arms protectively around Hope. He gets only one step forward in an attempt to leap over the side and into the water, just as the God of War slings the bolt.

Hope’s startled cries pierce through the din of battle as the bolt strikes Killian’s back. He drops instantly, screaming baby cradled protectively in his arms.

Emma’s eyes pop open as Hope’s screams echo across the deck but Neal keeps Emma’s attention focused on Henry. “You’ve almost done it. Just a bit more!”

As Snow and David hurry toward Killian, Neal grabs her by the shoulders and forces her to focus on Henry. “It’s ok, they’ve got her. Hope’s fine.”

Emma, too mentally and physically exhausted to question him and check for herself, closes her eyes again, and sends all of her healing energy into her son.

Neal watches helplessly as Ares stalks toward the motionless Killian and the screaming baby in his arms, eyes glued to the unfortunate scene he knows is about to follow. David and Snow are tossed aside as they try to reach the screaming baby and he drops his eyes, unable to witness the little girl’s death.

Suddenly, the God-killer sword lying forgotten on the deck shudders at Emma’s fingertips. As Hope screams and Ares continues to stalk forward, it levitates above the din of battle and wobbles through the air.

The sword slides right through Ares’ back just as he reaches a motionless Killian.

The shock on his face is palpable as white light bursts from the cracks that form along his body. Snow and David push to their feet and hurry to Killian’s side as Ares explodes in a spectacular burst of white light.

Snow drops to her knees and gingerly pulls the wailing Hope out of Killian’s arms, doing her best to comfort the screaming baby while checking the little body for injuries. She whispers to the child, presses her lips to red cheeks and glances at her husband with tear-filled eyes.

David quickly checks Killian for a pulse but closes anguish-filled eyes and rests a gentle hand on his son-in-law’s shoulder.

On the other side of the deck, Henry’s eyes suddenly pop open. “Mom?”

Emma and Neal pull him into their arms and hug him tightly. Their little family, alive and well. But Henry, with an unobstructed view of the horror on the deck across of him, pulls out of their arms as Hope’s angry screams echo across the enchanted wood.

“Killian?” Henry’s voice cracks as he notices his grandfather’s crestfallen face.

An exhausted Emma’s head swivels slowly across the massacre of blood and bodies on the deck, barely registering the unmoving Regina, Liam and Milah. She follows her son’s eyeline and gasps when her eyes land on her husband, a dejected David kneeling beside him, and her inconsolable daughter in her mother’s arms.

“No!” Emma struggles to her feet and scrambles over to them, Henry at her heels.

David catches her as her legs give out but Snow brings the screaming Hope into her line of sight with an assuring, “She’s ok, honey. She’s ok.”

Emma nuzzles the dark head for a moment before collapsing beside Killian. She pulls him into her lap but the grief-stricken look is all anyone needs to see to know it’s too late.

Henry drops to his knees beside her, eyes wide with belief. “Use your magic, mom. You can do it. You saved me.”

She turns teary eyes to her son, lips trembling. But with a huff of determination, she settles one hand on Killian’s shoulder, the other on his chest and squeezes her eyes closed.

Magic sputters across his skin in short bursts and she whimpers, shoulders sagging with the weight of her inability to control her weakened magic.

“C’mon. Please!” She whimpers as she redoubles her efforts.

“Maybe combine your magic with Regina’s,” Snow suggests but then notices the dwarves unsuccessfully trying to wake her on the other side of the ship.

Emma rests her forehead against Killian’s, her shoulders shaking with deep, hysterical sobs. Tears drip from her eyes as she begs, “Please come back to me.”

“I know you can do it, mom.” Henry’s unfailing belief gives her a second wind and she heaves a huge breath and tries again.

With an anguished moan, she heaves everything she has into her husband. Dull white magic flows steadily from her hands and her entire body glows for a brief moment before the magic vanishes with a final burst of stuttering light.

Emma gasps and presses a trembling hand to her stomach while everyone watches in horror as blood pools beneath her moments before she passes out.

“Mom!” Henry reaches for his mother, panic in his eyes.

A terrified Grumpy lifts his cell phone and is surprised when it connects to the hospital.

“We need ambulances at the docks. Now!” He roars into the phone as he kneels beside an unconscious Regina.

“How many?” He surveys the bloody deck and the unmoving bodies of the people he calls friends. “All of them!”

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Liked it? Hated it? Tell me why.
> 
> Much thanks to IrishBlueSkies for reading this over and making sure it sounded coherent.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

When Emma wakes, she’s numb, her mind is fuzzy and she doesn’t remember why she should be hooked up to an IV and multiple beeping monitors. Simply moving her head causes a tingly ache to spread throughout her body down to her bones.

Henry sits at her side, the kind of fear and sorrow on his face something she has seen far too often for a kid his age. When he notices her wake, he slides forward and grips her hand tightly, relief in his eyes.

She offers him a weak, strained smile. “Hey kid.” The ache is so all encompassing it even hurts to speak.

Her head lolls to her other side where Snow and David sit, Hope cradled in Snow’s arms as she tugs heartily from a bottle. Overwhelmed with the burning need to hold her child, Emma tries to sit up but is wracked with abdominal cramps so painful she has to lean back and exhale shakily.

Snow comes forward immediately, but her eyes are dulled with sadness. “She’s okay, sweetheart. I promise. She’s ok.”

Emma ignores the reassuring words and impatiently reaches out shaky arms toward her daughter. Snow helps her arrange the trembling limbs atop a pillow in her lap and then places the babe in her mother’s arms. Tears drip down her cheeks as the baby calmly blinks up at her with Killian’s eyes. She takes several deep, calming breaths as Snow’s gentle voice fills her in on what she’s missed.

“Regina is still unconscious. Ares must have hit her with one hell of a spell. But Whale confirmed she doesn’t have any injuries that can’t be seen. She just needs time to wake up.”

Time moves sluggishly as Emma struggles to keep up with the words.

“Milah was hurt pretty badly but she should recover. She’s in a bed down the hall.”

“Liam had a few injuries but he’ll be ok, too. He’s -.”

Before Snow has a chance to continue, Neal walks in, a holder full of coffee cups in his hand.

Emma levels a withering glare at him and the machine beeps loudly as her heart rate increases. Hope mutters around her bottle, sensitive babe sensing her mother’s growing distress.

“Get out,” Emma rasps as Hope abandons her bottle and starts to cry.

“Emma,” Snow’s sharp rebuke is short lived as David pulls her out of Emma’s line of sight.

At least Neal has the humility to look guilty. “Em-“

“I could have saved them both.” Her voice cracks with emotion and she cradles her fussing baby as tears drip down her cheeks.

“You didn’t give me the chance. You didn’t even _tell_ me!” She hisses, fury warring with overwhelming sadness in her voice. She would have found a way. She knows it in the depth of her soul. There was always another option. And they always found it. Always.

“Neal. Why don’t you go sit with your mother.” Snow’s tone is soft but firm. Delivered in such a way that she expects no argument.

Neal hands the coffee to Henry and walks out.

Hope calms in Emma’s arms again and she nuzzles the dark, wispy hair before turning her attention back to her mother. Before she can formulate the question, Snow is answering it.

“Killian’s hurt, Emma. Bad. Alive but – just barely. Whale can’t do anything more.”

“Machines can keep him alive until you get your magic back,” Henry says with a confidence that reaches his eyes, still the truest believer of the family.

“Henry,” Snow warns and Emma can sense there’s something that’s gone unsaid.

She almost doesn’t want to know but asks anyway. “What is it?”

Snow, David and Henry exchange silent looks and Emma knows they’re weighing how much heartbreaking information to give her.

“Just tell me,” Emma grinds out, her patience stretched to its breaking point.

Snow leans forward and says softly, “His organs are failing. The machines, they can only do so much.“

“Help me up,” Emma interrupts as she tries to swing her legs out of the bed.

Snow tries to stop her. “Emma, no. You can’t. You’re too weak-“

But the family optimist takes Hope out of her arms as she pulls herself out of bed, despite her body’s vehement protest. She sits at the edge of the mattress for a long moment as her head spins and pain lances through her abdomen.

“I can. And I will.” The response is short, curt and final. Tears burn at the corners of her eyes but she blinks them angrily away. “I lost my unborn baby today. I’m not losing my husband, too.”

***

Emma winces and presses her hand to her abdomen as David wheels the chair down the sterile hallway and into Killian’s room. It’s more horrifying and yet exactly what she expected when she arrives.

A weary Liam stands as they enter but she waves him down. She can almost feel his grateful sigh as he sinks back into his seat and grips his brother’s hand.

When her eyes land on Killian, her heart thunders hard against her ribcage. The head of the bed is filled with beeping monitors that she knows from experience show numbers too low to be sustainable. He has an IV in one arm and various other tubes that deliver nutrients and medicines to keep him alive.

As soon as David rolls her close enough, she grasps his hand and brings it to her lips. “Killian, please hang on. Just for a while longer.” There is no response and she doesn’t expect there to be. She closes her eyes, pushing every last emotion into getting her magic to work. And while she feels the familiar tingle, it sputters to nothing before she’s able to push it into him.

She’s so very tired and lays her head atop where their hands are joined, asking no one in particular, “What happened?”

“Ares flung a bolt at him,” Snow says softly.

David takes over to finish the short tale. “He was able to turn in time so it hit him instead of Hope.”

“Then you flung the sword and Ares – exploded.”

Emma lifts her head, confused. “I – no I didn’t. Ares knocked it out of my hand. I don’t know where it went.”

“But Regina was already down,’ Snow says, eyebrows knitted together. “There were no other magic users who could have done it.”

Emma turns to Henry, still holding her now sleeping daughter. “Except Hope.”

“Oh, Emma, I don’t think - you just don’t remember.” Snow’s denial does nothing to change her belief.

“It was Hope,” Emma says sternly and takes the baby from Henry’s arms. Smooth’s the untamed dark locks that could be so much like her father’s when he was in a feisty mood. “She showed signs when we – the day Liam arrived. That wasn’t _my_ annoyance with him that rattled the lights.”

Liam has the humility to nod his agreement.

“Mom’s right,” Henry confirms and pulls a Storybook out of a satchel Emma hadn’t noticed that was slung over his shoulder. He flips open the pages and stops at the painful one depicting the battle on the Jolly Roger and reads. “And when the child born from a second generation of True Love felt her father’s life slip away, her magic flared and sent the God-killer blade into Ares – causing his complete destruction.’” The graphic that accompanies the text shows the cracks of light fill a shocked Ares’ face.

The monitors suddenly start to beep and all their numbers descend rapidly into the red. Emma’s heart sinks and Hope begins to wail as nurses hurry in. They’re pushed out to make room for Whale and even more equipment that Emma knows in her heart won’t keep him alive for long.

Emma turns desperate eyes to Henry. “See if Regina is awake? Please? Maybe her magic can stabilize him.” Henry hurries away and Emma continues. “And if we can combine our magic, give it to him a little at a time and rest in between, we can save him.”

She stares her parents down but they don’t disagree. “This family doesn’t give up. There’s always another way. You taught me that.”

“I know, honey,” Snow comes forward to rest her hand on Emma’s shoulder but the doubt on her face is clear.

The nurses work quickly to stabilize him but nothing works and they continue to call for more machines and medicine. For long minutes, Emma waits impatiently, heart in her throat, until Henry, supporting a weak Regina, comes down the hallway. David hurries forward to help.

“Regina!” Snow exclaims but the weak, exhausted woman’s eyes focus only on Emma.

“Get us in there.”

Snow straightens her shoulders and marches into the frantic room, every bit the Queen she’s meant to be. “Everyone out. Now.”

Liam comes to Emma’s side, all trusting and hopeful eyes. “Let me take Hope.”

Emma hands over her daughter and David rolls her in behind Snow, Henry and Regina.

“My magic hasn’t worked since I woke up,” Emma laments, unsure if Henry has told Regina anything other than that her help was needed. “But if you can start, maybe it will trigger mine and we can combine it, heal him just enough to keep him alive until we can do it again.”

“I got it. Lets do this.” Regina snaps impatiently, eyes flitting up at the flat-lined monitors.

Henry slides a nearby chair forward and Regina sinks into it. Emma clasps her hand and curls her fingers around Killian’s. His pale, cold skin sending a jolt of anguish through her that she knows Regina can feel even though she hasn’t touched him.

They concentrate and - nothing happens.

But after a few tense moments, her body fills with that familiar tingling warmth. And a dull white light flows from the women’s joined hands and into Killian’s. The monitors stop their steep decline into the red and stabilize until a weak pulse is registered.

Emma and Regina sag into their seats and are immediately set upon by their family.

Emma waves off her parent’s concern. “It’s ok. I’m ok. Just – sleepy.”

“I’ve never been so bone tired,” Regina confirms as she leans heavily against Henry.

Whale steps forward after examining Killian, eyes wide with excitement. “You do that a few more times and he might just live.”

***

An exhausted Emma sits with her fingers twisted nervously together in her lap as Snow pulls the wheelchair to a halt in front of the closed door.

Snow tries one more time to change her mind. “Emma, you should be resting.”

But she would not be deterred. “I need to deal with this now.” She was going to have this conversation and then she was going back to fall asleep at her husband’s side. “And then I’m going to move on.”

Without another word, Snow swings open the door and rolls the chair in as Neal stands from his seat at his unconscious mother’s bedside.

“We need to talk,” Emma says in a tone that expects no argument as Snow rolls her to the end of the bed and leaves without another word.

“I’m glad you’re okay.” She can see a glimmer of hope in his hesitant smile.

And she’s eager to crush it. “My baby is dead. Because of you.” She knows the words are harsh but to move past her fury, they need to be said. She can’t just go on as if he was not involved.

“Em,” his voice is low, placating and it makes her even angrier. “You’re grieving.”

“You kept my attention focused on Henry. You actively blocked what was going on around us so I wouldn’t know Killian was hurt.” Her voice raises several octaves but she doesn’t care.

“You’re angry at me for forcing you to choose between our son and your new little family?” He grits out suddenly through clenched teeth. “I will always choose our son, Emma. Always!”

She forces herself to remain calm even though her skin tingles with fury at his accusation. “It’s not a matter of choosing, Neal. If I’d have known, I could have rationed my magic. And then when Regina was awake, we could have healed everyone a little at a time.”

He digs in, jaw set and eyes narrowed. “I refuse to feel guilty for wanting you to heal our son.”

“You knowingly took away my choice.“

Neal’s eyes flash with scorching anger. “You’d have chosen to save the pirate and not our son.”

“Do you think Killian would have hidden the fact that Henry was fatally injured if I was focused on healing an injured Hope?”

The response is immediate and defensive. “Yes.”

“You know him better than that.” She knows he’s lying but he’ll never admit it. Not now while he is so angry. Maybe not ever.

“I know I’m right.” The stubborn set of his jaw is a clear indication that this conversation is at an end. “He’ll always be the villain who broke up my family and turned me over to Pan.”

“And I know you’re wrong.”

He stubbornly crosses his arms. “Then I guess we’re at an impasse.”

Emma offers him a sad smile and wheels herself toward the door. “You’ve spent too much time with your selfish father, Neal. He didn’t care who he hurt so long as he got what he wanted, either.”

She swings the door open and Snow, waiting outside, steps in to take control of the wheelchair. As she rolls away, somewhere in the back of her mind, Emma considers their conversation to be a sad epithet a story she’d thought ended long ago.

She turns to Snow, imploring her mother with tired but determined eyes. “Killian can never know.”

Snow cocks her head, ready to disagree, and Emma closes her eyes, exasperated at the thought of arguing with her mother.

“Are you sure that’s wise, Emma?”

“He would kill Neal, mom.” And as much as she hates Neal right now, Killian would never be able to forgive himself if he killed Henry’s father. And she’s not going to lose him. Again.

“Oh, I dunno. I think he might surprise you.”

“His daughter is dead, mom. And Neal is directly responsible.”

The sad, patient look her mother gives her in no way soothes her justification over her conversation with Neal or the aching heart that will forever mourn the loss of her child.

“Take me back to Killian, please.”

***

Liam stands gingerly, a sleeping Hope cradled in his arms, when Snow wheels her back to Killian’s side. With a small smile, Emma waves her mother off. “It’s ok. Go home. I’m going to stay here for a bit and then I’ll go back to my room to rest.” It’s a lie and she hopes her mother won’t see through it.

“Emma,” Snow begins but is immediately shut down.

“Mom. Go. Home.” Being with her husband will make her feel better. Useful. And she’s not letting her baby girl out of her sight again either.

Snow hesitates but knows her daughter will not be swayed and gives in. “Okay, sweetheart. We’ll be back later.” Snow kisses her cheek, hesitates for a moment with a brief glace toward Liam and then leaves the room.

“She’s probably waiting right outside the door,” Emma sighs with a roll of her eyes. She’s exhausted and just wants to sleep. And she’s determined to do that while keeping watch at Killian’s bedside.

“Your parents love you very much,” Liam says with a wry sadness born of his own unfortunate parental circumstances. She’d been stunned when Killian had told her the sad, unbelievable story of how they’d been abandoned and sold as children. “Killian is blessed to have found such a family.”

While their first meeting had been strained and full of emotional upheaval, Emma is grateful she has a second chance to get to know Liam now. The slump of his shoulders and the dark circles beneath his eyes make it clear that he’s kept vigil over his little brother when she’d been unable to do so.

“Well, we’re your family too, now,” she says as Liam immediately rounds Killian’s bedside to return Hope to her arms.

“Thank you,” she says with a grateful smile and pulls her daughter close.

“I didn’t do enough to help him,” Liam says as he returns to his seat on the other side of the bed, his eyes pensive, regretful as they focus on the man lying unconscious in the bed between them.

“You did everything you could. Dwelling on might-have-been’s won’t change the outcome.” The words come easily when spoken in regards to another.

The hair on her arms stand on end as his soft, kind eyes settle on her. “Something we would all be wise to remember.”

She doesn’t want to think about that right now. She wants to cling to her justifiable anger and pain and she want to talk about it with anyone. Hope whimpers against her chest as she closes her hand around Killian’s cold, still fingers.

“You should go stretch your legs for a while. He won’t be alone.”

Liam hesitates and she knows he doesn’t want to leave his brother’s side but she levels an unwavering gaze at him until he reluctantly nods, gives his brother a lingering look and then limps out the door.

Only when she’s alone does she finally fall apart. Overwhelmed by Neal’s betrayal, heartbreak over losing her baby and the very real possibility that she could also lose the reformed pirate she’d fought like hell to love, fat tears finally drop down her cheeks and she sobs against the unmoving fingers she lifts to her lips.

“Killian, please. Please come back to me.”

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Liked it? Hated it? Only a few more chapters to go. Have a guess as to what's going to happen next? Leave a review and let me know.
> 
> Thanks to IrishBlueSkies for being a second set of eyes.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

After a few more healing sessions combining a rapidly recovering Emma and Regina’s magic, Killian has healed enough so that the lifesaving machines that have been a constant beeping companion over the last few days can be wheeled away.

All that remains now is for the sedative that has kept him unconscious to wear off, so Emma keeps vigil at his bedside and implores everyone waiting for news of his condition to occupy themselves outside the room for the time being.

She tells them it’s because she doesn’t want him to wake to a room full of anxious faces but in truth, Emma needs to tell him about the baby before someone else slips and accidentally mentions it.

With a sleeping Hope settled at his side, she laces their fingers together and rests her head atop them. At some point, she dozes off and wakes to lightly twitching fingers beneath her cheek. His breathing changes and he takes a few deep, steadying breaths as she holds hers in excited anticipation.

“Killian?”

His eyes flutter for a few moments before opening and her heart slams against her ribcage when the familiar piercing blue of his eyes finally settles on her face.

She huffs a watery laugh when he does his best saucy pirate impression. Not at all saucy or sexy with him lying in a hospital gown with his skin pale as a sheet and several extra days of beard growth on his face. “Aye, love. Miss me?”

A gentle squeeze and kiss of their joined fingers brings his vibrant gaze to the babe sleeping at his side.

“She’s unharmed?”

Tears gather at the corner of her eyes. “Yeah. You saved her.”

A relieved smile spreads across his face as he weakly squeezes their joined hands.

She rubs them against her cheek, her desire to tell him immediately fading with each steady breath he takes. It would be an unfair emotional burden if she were to give him the news right now. Her family can simply stay out of his room for another few hours. Give him time to acclimate to being awake after several days in a drug-induced coma. “Sleep, I’ll fill you in later.”

“What’s wrong?” he asks softly, his voice low and hesitant. His eyes searching hers for answers she hopes he won’t find.

Not for the first time, she wishes it wasn’t so very easy for him to read her. “Nothing that can’t wait until later.”

His head lolls toward her and he offers her a small, wry smile. “Open book, love.”

“Now isn’t the time, Killian. You literally just woke up.” Even though she’s rehearsed how she wants to tell him, he is completely, unemotionally prepared for the news and it would be unfair, even if she desperately wants to fall into his soothing arms and cry.

His voice is soft but demanding. “Tell me.”

“Ares is dead.”

“I gathered.”

She can tell in the way he’s holding himself, in the way his breath has slowed, that he’s bracing himself for bad news. She suddenly doesn’t know how to begin. How to tell him their baby is gone.

“Henry?”

Her heart lurches when he asks about her son first. She can barely grit out a, “Fine,” between lightly trembling lips.

“Liam?”

“Hurt but healing.”

“Your parents?”

Short clipped answers she can do. Thankfully, he doesn’t seem inclined to need more. “They’re ok.”

“Regina?”

She simply nods.

His patient, “Tell me, Emma,” nearly breaks her as much as she expects voicing the words actually will.

Needing a moment to gather herself, she glances down at her stomach, at Hope lying on the bed beside him, at their joined hands. But when he inhales sharply, she realizes her mistake. He’s to perceptive for his own good and has worked it out on his own.

“Emma?” His voice is hoarse and breathless as she lifts her eyes to meet his.

She bites her trembling lips while a few tears gather at the corner of her eyes. “The baby didn’t make it.”

Complete silence follows her admission and her very soul swells with grief when his eyes slip shut and he visibly sags into the mattress. After a long, steadying moment, they flutter open and the utter sorrow she sees reflected there as he glances down at Hope is something she never wants to see or experience again. In this lifetime or the next.

He lifts their joined hands to Hope’s dark-haired head. Focuses on watching and feeling the little chest rise and fall. And she doesn’t blame him. She’d watched her sleeping daughter breathe for what seemed like hours.

“She’s okay. She’s good, Killian. I promise.”

He simply nods and she waits until he can find his voice again. For a man who normally has a response for everything, he is uncharacteristically silent. There are no words she can say to comfort him. But as the silence stretches on, guilt gnaws at her and she can’t take it anymore. Tears drip down her cheeks as she whispers, “They delivered her.”

His eyes search hers and she can see an unasked question swirling behind the breath-stealing grief glittering behind the unshed tears.

When he glances down at Hope again and takes a slow, measured breath, she gives their joined hands an encouraging squeeze.

“Can we name her?”

The question comes out so soft and anguished that more hot tears slide down her cheeks. She has no words, no voice and if she never has to hear that tone come out of him again it will be too soon. So she simply nods and squeezes his fingers in support.

“Alice Ruth is a good name,” he says after a long, contemplative moment and now she’s sniffling as well as sobbing. “For those taken from us soon.”

***

Neal wanders into the room they share and sinks into the well-worn couch where Milah sits, bruises on her exposed skin nearly healed.

“Henry?” She asks, knowing that spending time with his boy has been the only highlight of the past few days.

“He’ll be here soon.”

“He’s a good boy.” And she means every word. He is a marvel. Smart, empathetic and kind. And she is grateful for the reconciliation that has allowed her to be part of his life.

“Yeah.”

But her son is still upset and there’s nothing she can do to help him. Emma is in pain and as much as he denies it, Milah can see there is some part of him that still loves her and wants to provide comfort. Just like there is a part of her that will always bear some love for Killian. She’s gutted for his loss. To lose a child is not easy, especially one you’ve never met. But Neal needs to give them time to mourn with their family. “You need to give Emma time, Bae.”

His eyes flash with raw emotion. “Sounds like you agree with her.”

“I haven’t said anything of the sort.” She does, in a way, but it’s complicated. She doesn’t have the same history, the same unending familial support. Emma has that in spades. If she’d had such support, maybe her life choices would have been different. But there was no use dwelling on a past she couldn’t change. She could only apologize and move on.

“But you do.”

He’s spoiling for a fight and she knows it. But she’s too emotionally and physically, despite being healed by some light magic herself, exhausted to indulge him. When she doesn’t answer, he bullishly continues anyway.

“I won’t let her make me feel guilty about wanting her to save my son.”

“I don’t think she’s done that at all.”

“How would you know? Did you feel an ounce of guilt for abandoning me?”

And there it is. Centuries of pain over being abandoned by his mother and later his father as a child have gnawed at him to the point that she doesn’t blame him from lashing out. Had actually expected it before now.

He barrels on, eyes flaring with anger. Fists clenched at his sides.

“And it’s just my overwhelmingly bad luck that it’s Killian, again, involved in that.”

“He didn’t steal me, Bae.”

“I know that.”

And he does. But he doesn’t seem to want to admit that she tore their family apart, not the man who had captured his first love’s heart. Perhaps it’s time for her to help him confronts those feelings and so she continues, fully expecting rage to follow. But she’s never shied away from a challenge and this conversation is long, long overdue.

“Do you? Because it seems like you’re more angry at him than me.”

A few long moments of silence follows and she waits patiently for him to continue. Waits for him to rant and rave and deny. She’d had a lot of time in the Underworld to contemplate how she wanted a conversation with her son to go if she got the chance and so she’s prepared to take every angry word he has to give.

“She said I was selfish like papa,” comes the unexpectedly deflated whisper.

Back to Emma again. There are unresolved feelings there and he needs to overcome them. She knows Killian well enough to know that when he gives his heart, he’s all in. She’s seen the devotion in his eyes for his wife and child. And in turn, Emma’s for her husband and daughter. There is no chance for Bae to reclaim his lost love and the sooner he understands that, they easier it will be for him to move on.

She tries to redirect his fixation on Emma to her former husband. “You’re far from being a murderous psychopath.”

“He’s changed.”

Her response is instant disbelieving huff. “I doubt it.”

His sigh is heavy and filled with resignation. “Maybe I should just go back and live with him.”

“Don’t run, Bae.” She slides forward and reaches for his hands. Clasps them tightly together. “Don’t run like I did. You will regret it. Just like I do.”

***

A little carved sea chest bearing intricate depictions of seahorses bobbing in the water surrounded by a cove of peaceful sea creatures sits atop a small dirt mound. Where the lock would normally be, the name “Alice Ruth Jones’ is carved in elegant script. Resting atop the chest; pink middlemist flowers.

A private family gathering surrounds the little gravesite as Killian, Emma, with Hope fastened tightly into her baby bjorn, Liam, Regina, Henry snug against her side, Snow and David holding little Neal say goodbye.

A somber Killian releases Emma’s hand and he steps forward, kneels and gently places the last flower atop the chest before flattening both hands over it in a final farewell.

A teary-eyed Snow grasps Emma’s hand tightly when Killian straightens and Liam joins him. Together, they lift the little chest to lower it into the ground.

Once settled, Liam and Killian step back and David, holding little Neal, comes forward and kneels. He shows his little boy how to grab a fistful of dirt and together, they toss a handful atop the little casket. Snow kneels beside them, tears leaking down her cheeks as she follows suit.

An uncharacteristically misty-eyed Regina, Henry at her side, even dips a well-manicured hand into the dirt before releasing it onto the chest below.

A solemn Liam does the same but then hovers closely near his brother as Killian steps forward with Emma at his side. They kneel and each take a fistful of earth before letting it slip through their fingers, a final farewell to the little girl they would never get to meet.

Behind them, waiting at a respectful distance for a moment to pay their respects, the Dwarves stand at the head of a large portion of the population of the United Realms of Storybrooke.

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Liked it? Hated it? Writers always like to know.
> 
> Thanks to IrishBlueSkies for reading this over and making sure it made sense.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

The morning sun peeks through the closed curtains as Emma lies in bed, burrowed protectively beneath the thick blankets. She stares unblinking at the open bedroom door, unwilling to look away, but too exhausted to get up.

Before panic at his absence sets in, Killian appears, linen sleep pants clinging to his narrow hips, with a sleeping Hope cradled against his bare chest.

While she can’t be bothered to even sit up, she does reach for her daughter when Killian slides back into bed beside her and lays the babe between then. She burrows her nose into the wispy dark hair and inhales deeply.

“All right, then?” He settles in and links their fingers together over Hope’s swaddling.

Desperate to feel his comforting touch, Emma slides closer and rests her forehead against his. Curls herself around him to cocoon Hope protectively between them.

“Am now,” she finally answers, eyes slipping shut.

A week after the funeral, she still doesn’t want to get out of bed and she’s grateful that Killian doesn’t seem inclined to leave her side for any length of time either. Liam had taken over running the pub in the evenings but dodging her concerned mother’s constant phone calls had been more of a challenge. The last straw had been Snow showing up unannounced, determined to draw them out of their self-imposed isolation.

Even Liam made himself scarce when his younger brother lost his temper at the unexpected arrival and demanded the return of her key. Emma knows he felt guilty about it later but she felt protected and comforted in a way that her parents just couldn’t understand.

Liam had been a godsend taking over the pub for Killian while they remained closeted away from the rest of the world. Her dad had put her on temporary medical leave from the station so she had no worries outside of the house and her little, recovering family.

“Let’s sail away,” she says on a whim, voice soft and airy as she searches her husband’s eyes for any form of disagreement.

He doesn’t seem surprised by her request and if he is, he hides it well. But they’ve always been on the same wavelength and she thinks that maybe he’s itching to see the back end of Storybrooke for a while, too. To put their lives back together. To heal. Together. Away from the constant reminders of what they’d lost.

“Aye,” is his simple answer.

“Not for forever,” she’s quick to assure him. “Just – for now.” And then she could tell him, while on a ship in the middle of the ocean where his anger would be contained, about Neal’s involvement in the death of his unborn child.

He gathers her into his arms and she’s never felt more cherished.

“Whatever you need, love. I will see it done.”

***

A somber Snow, David, Regina and Henry sit in a booth as Granny’s diner teams with life. Waitresses bustle around them and the owner herself is behind the counter assisting with the busy crowd.

“I’m worried, David. It’s been a week.” Snow doesn’t mention being on the receiving end of Killian’s rather vicious temper because it had been in defense of her daughter. And she feels a certain pride at that, even if the ire had been directed at her.

“Things never go well when you push either of them, you know that,” Regina says bluntly.

“They just need time,” David says, melancholy creeping into his voice.

Snow turns to Henry, knowing he’s been welcome in the house. Before she can ask, he’s already offering an answer she doesn’t want to hear.

“They really don’t want any company, grandma,” Henry confirms as he pops another fry into his mouth.

She directs her attention to David again. “What about Liam? You see him at the pub every night.”

“He made it quite clear that Killian and Emma would emerge when they were good and ready.”

“Not a man to push,” Regina confirms with a grudgingly respectful smirk. “He’s as stubborn as a mule when it comes to his little brother.”

Suddenly, Grumpy bounds in, their local whirlwind of angsty drama, and gruffly informs them, “The Jolly Roger is taking on supplies.”

A chill races down Snow’s spine and panic crawls through the cracks in her heart. She searches everyone’s shocked eyes and sees the same realization. “They’re leaving.”

“Have Emma and Killian been down by the docks?” David turns to Henry. “I thought they hadn’t left the house?”

“How do you know this?” A skeptical Regina asks Grumpy, eyes narrowed in suspicion.

Grumpy glares at them, finally settling on Regina. “Hey sister. You traffic in magic. I traffic in information.”

“I’m staying there tonight, “ Henry says, still popping fries. “I’ll find out for sure.”

***

With Hope downstairs helping her papa with dinner, Emma takes her time folding and packing baby things away for their voyage. She finishes with one bag and sets it next to the others and pulls open the last one to finish the job.

“So it’s true.”

Emma whirls at the voice and sees Henry standing in the doorway.

“Hmm?” she asks innocently. She and Killian had planned to tell Henry at dinner tonight but it appeared fate, as usual, had other plans and she was meant to tell him without her husband’s silent support.

“You’re leaving.”

It isn’t a question so Emma wonders from whom he’d heard the news. And who else knows already.

“Just for a little bit,” she confirms, carefully watching his face for signs of disapproval. To her surprise, she finds none.

“Are you,” she hesitates and then continues. “Okay with that?”

“You’re not happy here right now.”

Emma pulls him into her arms and squeezes him tight, grateful for the non-judgmental reaction. ”We are. We just – need to get out for a bit and clear our heads.” She searches his face and marvels at her grown boy. “Can you stay until we get back? Or – would you like to come with us?”

His lip twitches as if he already knew she was going to ask. “No, you need to go for a while. Heal. I’ll be here when you get back.”

She embraces him tightly, blinking back tears. “I love you, kid.”

***

When Emma and Henry finally make it downstairs for dinner, Liam and Killian are already at the table and a disgruntled Hope is in her bassinet pointedly ignoring her father’s attempts to spoon food into her pouting mouth.

“ _You can beg, plead and whine but you’re just wasting your time_ , Little P.” An exasperated Killian tries again and ends up wearing more of its contents than he manages to get into his daughter’s mouth.

With a huff of a laugh, Emma takes the spoon from her husband and attempts to feed her temperamental child.

One look at Killian lets her know that he’s already had a conversation with Liam so she feels comfortable asking one more question of Henry.

“So who told you?”

Hope, for the moment, takes her food with a happy giggle and she spares an imperious wink at a mildly annoyed Killian before returning her attention to her son.

Henry grins wryly. “Grumpy announced it in the middle of Granny’s today.”

Everyone’s eyes snap toward Killian when he drops his silverware on the table a little too loudly. “I always hated that dwarf.”

***

Emma and Killian stand with Hope lying in her bassinet on the deck of the Jolly Roger as their family, in various states of unsuccessfully masked sadness, surrounds them to say goodbye.

Regina and Henry, Snow and David with little Neal. Behind them, Liam readies the ship for departure so there is no delay when their guests finally cross the gangway.

“I wish you’d change you mind,” Snow says, tears pooling in the corner of her eyes.

“We’ve been over this, mom.”

“I know,” she shrugs unapologetically. “I had to try one more time.”

Emma hugs her mother tight and then moves to her dad, who clings to her tighter than she expects. He’s been more supportive of their decision but he isn’t exactly happy about it, especially since his wife is so upset. After she kisses her little brother, she embraces a rigid, as she always is when emotion is involved, Regina.

She pulls Henry into a tight hug and as he holds her in arms too strong for that little boy she remembers, out of the corner of her eye she sees David clasp Killian on the shoulder, catches Snow whisper something to him before her father’s deeper voice reaches her ears.

“Take care of her.”

“You know I will.”

David pulls him into a tight hug. “And take care of you.”

“Thanks, kid,” Emma whispers and gently kisses each cheek.

“For what?”

“For being here.”

Henry hugs her again and she closes her eyes against the emotion that wells in her chest for her first born. This isn’t anywhere near a goodbye but in some ways it feels like it is.

Snow lifts a chittery Hope from her bassinet and repeatedly kisses her little plump cheeks as Liam rejoins the group.

“All set, brother.”

Killian gives Liam a grateful hug while she extricates Hope from her mother’s reluctant arms. Regina and Henry move toward the gangway and are joined by Liam, ready to let their journey begin.

“I miss you already,” Snow whispers through teary sobs.

“We’ll be back, mom,” Emma reassures her with a half smile as Killian returns to her side.

“Promise?”

“Oh for the love of God,” Regina mutters and suddenly everyone but Emma, Killian and Hope vanish in a poof of purple smoke only to reappear dockside, the metal clang of the retreating gangway loud in the shocked silence.

Emma gives Regina an approving nod as Killian leads her up to the helm, wraps his arms around his two girls as a hand lands on the familiar wheel.

“Where to, love?”

The devotion in his eyes says more than his flowery words ever could as she hoists Hope between them.

They watch as the sun sets a multicolored tableau on the horizon and beckons them with tendrils of unknown promise. With a quick look at the stars just starting to break through the darkening sky, she smiles brightly at her husband for the first time in what seems like forever.

“How about the second star to the right and straight on til morning?”

A stupidly handsome grin spreads across his face.

“As you wish.”

A brisk wind catches the sails and propels the Jolly Roger into the horizon, an adventure of their own making waiting for them to take that first step into the great unknown – together.

END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much to everyone who read this tale. An even greater thanks to those who felt moved enough to leave feedback. I appreciate every word!
> 
> There is an epilogue so look out for that soon.
> 
> Thanks to IrishBlueSkies for assuring me it sounded ok and wasn’t horrible.
> 
> Additional Note:
> 
> "You can beg, plead and whine but you’re just wasting your time"  
> Line taken from Revenge is Gonna Be Mine. Hook’s song in the musical episode.


	16. Chapter 16 - Epilogue

**Epilogue**

Snow spreads the postcards across the table and closely inspects each one, even though she’d committed them to memory the moment they were received.

While the phone calls home have been few and far between, they’re at sea after all, there have been numerous postcards; a roadmap of the course the Jolly Roger had taken after she’d set sail from Storybrooke five months ago and left them to pick up the pieces of a town nearly ripped apart by war.

Snow doesn’t begrudge her daughter the need to get away for a while but she misses Emma fiercely. Feels incomplete without her entire family close by.

But she, David and Regina have been busy. Justice, after all, waits for no one. They tried the militants in a Storybrooke court. They banished some and imprisoned others. Skirmishes with those who escaped had come to an end; the Queen finally caught and imprisoned in the bowls of the hospital psych ward. Her devoted mind shredded in the aftermath of Ares’ unexpected destruction.

Snow smiles as she turns over each postcard. The short, hand-written updates giving each rectangular piece of common tourist photography a personal touch.

“She seems happy,” Snow says softly, David and Henry sitting at the table in silence as she reminisces over each memento. Again. “They seem happy.”

Little Neal, sitting across from her like a big boy and oblivious to her emotional trip down memory lane, stretches his short arms to steal a fry off Henry’s plate.

“Hope’s first birthday is in a few weeks,” Snow laments, eyes sad. “We should be celebrating that milestone together. As a family.”

“Even if they’re not here with us, they’re out there together.”

David’s attempt to make her feel better misses the mark but she offers him a small smile, which doesn’t reach her eyes, as thanks anyway.

“They’ll be back soon,” Henry confirms with a confidence she doesn’t feel while sliding his plate closer to the little fry thief.

She looks up then and offers the Truest Believer in the family a warm smile. “You didn’t have to add your postcard pile to mine, you know.”

A knowing smile tugs at his lips and he shrugs. “Looks more impressive that way.”

Before she has a chance to unpack the meaning behind those words, Grumpy bursts through the door, his booming voice commanding instant attention.

“They’re back! They’re back! The Jolly Roger is back!”

Snow’s heart lurches sharply in her chest and she exchanges a wide-eyed look with David and Henry.

David stands and intercepts the dwarf, his tone teasing, “We didn’t know you cared.”

His expression turns serious as he addresses Snow. “They’re family.”

Snow quickly gathers the postcards, grabs Neal’s hand and hurries out the door, David and Henry, each dialing their phones, at her heels. She reaches the truck first and impatiently bounces on her heels as David finishes his call with a, “We’ll pick you up on the way.”

Snow holds out her hand. “Keys, David.”

“Yeah, we’ll see you there.” Henry hangs up and opens the passenger side truck door.

“I’m driving. We want to get to the docks alive.”

Snow scowls at her husband but knows he’s right. The adrenaline rushing through her body right now would be distracting on a road increasingly filled with more people settling in the United Realms.

They stop by Emma and Killian’s house to pick up Liam, who had already begun walking to the docks. He hops into the truck bed and David peels away, tires skidding on the pavement in his haste to reach their destination. Snow glares at him and he pointedly ignores her. Clearly, he’s just as excited to reach their destination as she is.

When they reach the docks, the dwarves, every single one of them, are there, watching with more excitement than she’s ever seen as the Jolly Roger sails toward them.

It’s close enough now that she can see Killian at the helm and her eyes excitedly scan the deck for a glimpse of Emma. With a small frown, she comes up empty and David wraps his arms around her as they make their way down the long wooden dock.

As the ship pulls into its assigned berth, Snow’s worry grows but she knows Killian would never come back without his wife.

“She’s probably down below with Hope,” Henry interrupts her melancholy thoughts as Regina joins them in a poof of purple smoke.

Before the ship comes to a full stop, Liam swings himself onto the deck without the benefit of the gangway and immediately helps Killian secure the rigging. After a few very long moments, the two make their way toward where David and Henry work to swing the heavy gangway across the water to the rail of the enchanted ship.

Before Liam and Killian are able to settle it in place, Emma appears from below, a bright- eyed, excited Hope squirming in her arms.

Snow bounces impatiently as Liam and Killian lock the gangway on their side and is running across it the moment that it’s secured into place.

As soon as Snow’s feet land on the enchanted deck she pulls up short and watches Emma bend down to let Hope toddle her way forward, arms outstretched to her papa.

She hears Regina’s sharp inhale behind her and as David, Henry and little Neal join her on the deck, the ripples of surprise continue. And not at the sight of Hope wobbling on unsteady legs into her father’s arms.

When Killian hoists his squealing daughter into his arms, Emma straightens and makes her way toward them, Hope no longer concealing her very visible baby bump.

Snow pulls her daughter into an all-consuming hug as Liam and Killian holding Hope join them.

“Well, we know what you’ve been up to for the last five months,” Regina smirks, drawing a laugh from everyone on the deck and a momentary wince from Henry.

“Babies! Babies!” Hope squeals in Killian’s arms as Snow steps aside to allow David and Henry time to embrace Emma.

Snow glances between her daughter and the excitable Hope and back again. “Babies?”

Emma holds out a sonogram as she wraps an arm around Killian’s waist and exchanges a warm smile with her husband.

Snow feels her heart burst with excitement as she breathes, “Twins?”

Emma glances at her father with amusement dancing in her bright eyes.

“Well, they do run in the family.”

FIN

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes:
> 
> Thank you so much to everyone for coming along on this exciting and emotional (I hope!) journey. And even greater thanks to those of you who were compelled to leave comments. It’s always nice to know that people are reading and enjoying (or not!) your work.


End file.
